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THE INGERSOLL 

ARRANGED BY 


D c< ha io> ■ !’ u e F. Berdanier 


Robert G. Ingersoll, 1897 
( 1833 - 1899 .) 


New York 


1911 




































THE INGERSOLL 

it 

BIRTHDAY BOOK 

ARRANGED BY 

GRACE L. MACDONALD 

* 

Decorations by Paul F. Berdanier 
Preface by Eva Ingersoll-Brown 

4 * 


New York 

The Truth Seeker Company 

1911 



Copyrighted by 

The Truth Seeker Company, 1911 . 




©Cl. A 303536 












PREFACE. 

A GREAT man is at once the simplest and the most 
complex of all nature’s creatures. He is as 
“many-sided as the clouds are many formed.” 
He is simplicity incarnate and sagacity supreme. His 
brain has the clearness and candor of light—his soul the 
poise and breadth of truth itself—his heart the jocund 
laughter and the tears of pure and spotless childhood. 

A great man is the embodiment of infinite compas¬ 
sion—of pure democracy—of lustrous truth—of all- 
embracing love. 

He is an intellectual spendthrift. To him “giving 
is hoarding, summer is harvest, and waste itself the source 
of wealth;” and the “more he gives” of his “mental gold,” 
“the more he has,” for it is “infinite.” 

A great man is universal, elemental, cosmic. His 
being is sun-touched and godlike—attuned to the 
higher harmonies of life and death, and all that makes for 
beauty and completion;—“a man to match the moun¬ 
tains and compel the stars to look our way, and honor 
us”—and such a man was Robert G. Ingersoll. 

A fetterless Freethinker and Agnostic, his creed 


vn 


was: 







“To love justice, to long for the right, to love mercy, 
to pity the suffering, to assist the weak, to forget wrongs, 
and remember benefits; to love the truth, to be sincere, 
to utter honest words, to love liberty, to wage relentless 
war against slavery in all its forms, to love wife and 
child and friend, to make a happy home, to love the 
beautiful in art, in nature, to cultivate the mind, to be 
familiar with the mighty thoughts that genius has ex¬ 
pressed, the noble deeds of all the world; to cultivate 
courage and cheerfulness, to make others happy, to fill life 
with the splendor of generous deeds, the warmth of 
loving words; to discard error, to destroy prejudice, to 
receive new truth with gladness, to cultivate hope, to see 
the calm beyond the storm, the dawn beyond the night, 
to do the best that can be done, and then to be resigned.” 

Than this a more inspiring, noble and complete 
declaration of faith was never born of human heart and 
brain. And, above all be it said, to the eternal glory of 
this transcendent man, that he lived in absolute accord 
with these his high ideals. His life was one unbroken 
melody of thought and deed, of heart and hand, of will 
and act—one sublime symphony of conscience and of 
conduct, of precept and of practice—one lofty consecra¬ 
tion to the service of his fellow-men. 

In his nature “duties and desires clasped hands, and 
became comrades and friends.” He realized that true 
happiness can come alone through right doing; that 
“honor’s wounds are self-inflicted,” and that, provided one 
is sovereign of oneself, one is invulnerable to a united and 
a hostile world. In other words, a man has but one 


Vlll 



enemy—himself. He believed in the independence and 
integrity of the intellect, the kingship of the mind and soul, 
the heart and being. He was an individualist—believed 
in the power of personality, of character, the dignity and 
force of the ego. He was also (if I may employ such 
a term) an altruist—a passionate lover and server of 
humanity—a pitier and helper of the poor, depised and 
outcast of every land and clime—an ardent advocate of 
liberty, a devout believer in democracy, in social justice 
but not in charity, which, in his opinion, only tended to 
foster a false, degrading spirit among men; to make them 
slaves, and rob them of what small faint spark of man¬ 
hood they may have had before. 

He distinguished with unerring eye the gold from 
the dross—the real from the artificial values of life. He 
knew that the only true caste is the caste of the mind— 
the only true superiority, the superiority of heart and 
soul—the only real aristocracy, the aristocracy of intel¬ 
lect, of achievement—the only real nobility, the nobility 
of nature and character development. 

Ingersoll was, I believe, the most profoundly ethi¬ 
cal, the most deeply spiritual, the most truly religious of 
men. His was the only real religion; the religion of 
goodness, of justice and of mercy, the religion of 
humanity ; and his whole life was one heroic consecration 
to the futherance of his religion. I beg leave to repeat 
this all-important fact; Ingersoll was a religious man— 

religious in the highest and holiest, the only true sense 
0 

of the term; religious in his irrepressible and matchless 
zeal for truth, religious in his love for and trust in 


IX 





humanity, religious in his fine, intrepid fealty to facts, to 
justice and to rectitude; religious in his temperament of 
storm and fire—religious in his splendid scorn of wrong— 
in his superb capacity for wrath and for rebellion— 
religious in his peerless power for tenderness, for pity, and 
for love; religious even in his fearless enmity to creed 
and cant, to every form of futile dogma, ignorant theolo¬ 
gy, and childish faith—to base hypocrisy that masquer¬ 
ades as virtue and as truth; religious in his very 
detestation of the church; for the term religious, rightly 
conceived, signifies no unreasoning adherence to puerile 
formula, or stupid rite, no self-effacement through humble 
and unquestioning faith in things beyond the grasp of 
mortal mind, such as the worship of (a) God, but rather 
a large capacity for lofty thoughts, for loving words, for 
brave and generous deeds. 

Moreover Ingersoll, to the extent that he was re¬ 
ligious, was not so much destructive as constructive , not 
so much an iconoclast as an upbuilder , a conserver , 
a sower of the seeds that shall in time to come bear quite 
the richest fruitage that the world has ever known. For 
what is there so affirmative, so constructive as scientific 
truths, as bed-rock facts, as free, untrammeled thought 
and speech, as the countless marvelous inventions and 
discoveries born of the mind of man, as all the vast, well 
traversed fields in knowledge’s grand domain, as all the 
mental wealth that genius has produced? For all these 
things, Ingersoll, the apostle of Secularism , fought. 

The true philosopher, poet, or seer is necessarily 
constructive; his vision—that divine, immortal something 




that gives to our small life its sweetness, melody and 
joy—while it is ever idealistic, married to a dream, cloud- 
swept and “luminous with suns”—is nevertheless sane and 
practical, hence preeminently constructive. Therefore 
Ingersoll, being, in the highest degree, poet, philosopher 
and seer, had a vision—a “vision of the future,” wherein 
he saw a “world at peace, adorned with every form of 
art, with music’s myriad voices thrilled; a world without 
disease of flesh or brain, shapely and fair, the married 
harmony of form and function,” and as he looked “life 
lengthens, joy deepens, love canopies the earth, and over 
all shines the eternal star of human hope.” 

Ingersoll hated orthodoxy and the church because 
they are the fierce, inveterate foes of human freedom; 
because they stand as they have ever stood, for fear and 
fraud, hypocrisy and greed, for selfishness and sin— 
because they crown the coward, and debase the 
brave—because they crush on every possible occasion, 
honest doubt, and seek to extirpate all those who dare 
to speak their fearless thought—because they are the 
bitter enemies of progress and enlightenment—because 
they are the emblems of ignorance and might—the last 
poor remnants of a dark and blood-stained past—the 
trappings and externals of the most colossal lie mankind 
has ever lived, or has believed these dreary ages past. 

Ingersoll in his characterization of Shakespeare, I 
think, described himself. “He was an intellectual 
ocean whose waves touched all the shores of thought, 
within which were all the tides and waves of destiny and 
will, over which swept all the storms of fate, ambition 


XI 








and revenge, and within which was the inverted sky lit 
with the eternal stars—an intellectual ocean, towards 
which all rivers ran, and from which now the isles and 
continents of thought receive their dew and rain.” 

This Birthday Book contains selections from Inger- 
soll’s most characteristic utterances, his thoughts in minia¬ 
ture, and at the same time its scope embraces the widest 
variety. Here are glimpses of the ‘‘cloud-capped towers, 
the gorgeous palaces, the solemn temples, the great globe” 
of his complete works. Thus the purpose for which, 
with painstaking care, the selections have been chosen, 
is admirably served. 

E. I. B. 


Xll 























INGERSOLL 

BIRTHDAY 









































ORN of love and liope, of ecstasy and pain, of 
agony and fear, of tears and joy—dowered with 
the wealth of two united hearts—held in happy 
arms, with lips upon life’s drifted font, blue- 
veined and fair, where perfect peace finds perfect form; 
rocked by willing feet and wooed to shadowy shore of 
sleep by siren moilier singing soft and low—looking 
with wonder’s wide and startled eyes at common things 
of life and day—taught by want and wish and contact 
with the things that touch the dimpled flesh of babes— 
lured by light and flame, and charmed by color’s won¬ 
drous robes—learning the use of hands and feet, and by 
the love of mimicry beguiled to utter speech—releasing 
prisoned thoughts from crabbed and curious marks on 
soiled and tattered leaves—puzzling the brain with 
crooked numbers and their changing, tangled worth; and 
so through years of alternating day and night, until the 
captive grows familiar with the chains and walls and 
limitations of a life. 

And times runs on in sun and shade, until the one of 
all the world is wooed and won, and all the lore of love 
is taught and learned again. Again a home is built with 
the fair chamber wherein faint dreams, like cool and 
shadowy vales, divide the billowed hours of love. Again 
the miracle of a birth-—the pain and joy, the kiss of 
welcome and the cradle-song drowning the drowsy prattle 
of a babe. 

And then the sense of obligation and of wrong—pity 
for those who toil and weep—tears for the imprisoned 
and despised—love for the generous dead, and in the 
heart the rapture of a high resolve. 

And then ambition, with its lust of pelf and place 
and power, longing to put upon its breast distinction’s 
worthless badge. Then keener thoughts of men, and 
eyes that see behind the smiling mask of craft, flattered 
no more by the obsequious cringe of gain and greed— 
knowing the uselessness of hoarded gold—of honor 
bought from those who charge the usury of self-respect 
—of power that only bends a coward’s knees and forces 







from the lips of fear the lies of praise. Knowing at last 
the unstudied gesture of esteem, the reverent eyes made 
rich with honest thought; and holding high above all 
other things—high as hope’s great throbbing star above 
the darkness of the dead—the love of wife and child and 
friend. 

Then locks of gray, and growing love of other days 
and half-remembered things—then holding withered 
hands of those who first held his, while over dim and 
loving eyes death softly presses down the lids of rest. 

And so, locking in marriage vows his children’s hands 
and crossing others on the breasts of peace, with daugh¬ 
ters’ babes upon his knees, the white hair mingling with 
the gold, he journeys on from day to day to that horizon 
where the dusk is waiting for the night. At last, sitting 
by the holy hearth of home as evening’s embers change 
from red to gray, he falls asleep within the arms of her 
he worshiped and adored, feeling upon his pallid lips 
loves’ last and holiest kiss. 


—Life. 












F not a human being lived . . . the changing Seasons would 
come and go, time would repeat the poem of the year, Spring 

weave her robes of green. 


X with deft and unseen hands would 

life with countless lips would seek fair Summer’s swelling 
breasts. Autumn would reap the wealth of leaf and fruit and 
seed. Winter, the artist, would etch in frost the pines and ferns, 
while wind and wave and fire, old architects, with ceaseless 
toil would still destroy and build, still wreck and change, and 
from the dust of death produce again the throb and breath of 




























































































































January 1. 



INTER is the mother of industry and prudence. 
Civilization, liberty, justice, charity, intellectual 
advancement are all flowers that blossom in the 
drifted snow. 

—Liberty of Man, Woman and Child. 


January 2. 



HETHER the Bible is true or false is of no 
consequence in comparison with the mental 
freedom of the race. Salvation through slavery 
is worthless. Salvation from slavery is in¬ 


estimable. 


—The Gods. 


'January 3. 



HE man who has a good business and who can 
make a reasonable living and lay aside some¬ 
thing for the future, and who can educate his 
children and can leave enough to keep the wolf 
of want from the door of those he loves, ought to be the 
happiest of men. 

—How to Reform Mankind. 


- January //. —- 

F his world man should be sovereign, and his 
soul should wear the the purple. From his 
dominions should be banished the hosts of 
force and fear. 

—The Truth. 

GRATITUDE is the fairest flower that sheds its per¬ 
fume in the heart. 



—Decoration Day. 








































January 1. 


January 2. 


January 3. 


January J/. 










- January 5. - 

HE world remains with its winters and homes 
and firesides, where grow and bloom the virtues 
of our race. All these are left; and music, 
with its sad and thrilling voice, and all there 
is of art and song and hope and love and aspiration high. 
All these remain. Let the ghosts go—we will worship 
them no more. 

—The Ghosts. 

- January 6. - 

HE sciences are not sectarian. People do not 
] ersecute each other on account of disagree¬ 
ments in mathematics. Families are not di¬ 
vided about botany, and astronomy does not 
even tend to make a man hate his father and mother. 
It is what people do not know, that they persecute each 
other about. Science will bring, not a sword, but 
peace. —Some Mistakes of Moses. 

- January 7. - - 

HE imagination hath a stage within the brain, 
whereon he sets all scenes that lie between the 
morn of laughter and the night of tears, and 
where his players body forth the false and true, 
the joys and griefs, the careless shallows and the tragic 
deeps of every life. 

—The Imagination. 





January 8. 


HE orator loves the real, the simple, the natural. 
He places the thought above all. He knows 
that the greatest ideas should be expressed in 
the shortest words—that the greatest statue 
needs the least drapery. — Abraham Lincoln. 



MARTYRDOM, as a rule, establishes the sincerity of 
the martyr—never the correctness of his thought. 

— The Great Infidels. 








































Jan liar y 5. 


-January 6. 


January 7. 


January 8. 











January 9. 



IBERTY is the soil and light and rain — it is 
the plant and bud and flower and fruit—and in 
that sacred word lie all the seeds of progress, 
love and joy. 


—Liberty of Man, Woman and Child. 


January 10. 



HE superior man is the providence of the in¬ 
ferior. He is eyes for the blind, strength for 
the weak, and a shield for the defenseless. He 
stands erect by bending above the fallen. He 


rises by lifting others. 

—Liberty of 


Man, Woman and Child. 


January 11. 



HE world should know that the real bible has 
not yet been written, but is being written, and 
that it will never be finished until the race be¬ 
gins its downward march, or ceases to exist. 

—The Real Bible. 


January 12. 



T is not necessary to be rich or to be great or 
to be powerful, to be happy. The happy man 
is the successful man. Happiness is the legal 
tender of the soul. Joy is wealth. 


—Liberty of Man, Woman and Child. 


LOYE is the many-colored flame that makes the fire¬ 
side of the heart. It is the mingled Spring and Autumn 
—the perfect climate of the soul. — Shakespeare. 







































January 9. 


January JO. 


January 11. 


January 12. 










January 13. 



O civilize the world, to hasten the coming of 
the golden dawn of the Perfect Day, we must 
educate the children, we must commence at the 
cradle, at the lap of the loving mother. 


—How to Reform Mankind. 


January i}. 



O him and for him there was but one religion— 
the religion of pure thoughts, of noble words, 
of self-denying deeds, of honest work for all 
the world—the religion of Help and Hope. 

—Tribute to Courtlandt Palmer. 


January 15 .■ 



e'T us believe that pure thoughts, brave words 
and generous deeds can never die. Let us 
believe that they bear fruit and add forever to 
the well being of the human race. Let us be¬ 
lieve that a noble, self-denying life increases the moral 
wealth of man, and gives assurance that the future will 
be grander than the past, 

—Tribute to Courtlandt Palmer. 


January 16. 



HE record of a generous life runs like a vine 
around the memory of our dead, and every 
sweet, unselfish act is now a perfumed flower. 

—Tribute to Ebon C. Ingersoll. 


THE real church, the real edifice is adorned and glori¬ 
fied with all that art has done. 

—How to Reform Mankind. 







































January 13. 


January Ilf. 


January 15. 


January 16. 


€ 










January 17. ■ 



AM told that I must render good for evil. I 
am told that if smitten on one cheek I must 
turn the other. I am told that I must over¬ 
come evil with good. I am told that I must 
love my enemies; and will it do for this God who tells 
me to love my enemies to damn his ? No, it will not 
do. It will not do. 


January IS. 



ATHERS and mothers should do their utmost 
to make their children free. They should 
teach them to doubt, to inquire, and every 
father and mother should know that by the 
cradle of every child, as by the cradle of the infant Her¬ 
cules, crawls the serpent of superstition. 

—Voltaire. 


January 19. 



HE Infidels have been the brave and thoughtful 
men; the flower of all the world; the pioneers 
and heralds of the blessed day of liberty and 
love; the generous spirits of the unworthy 
past; the seers and profits of our race; the great cliival- 
ric souls, proud victors on the battlefields of thought, 
the creditors of all the years to be. 

—Voltaire. 


January 20. 


S a matter of fact the truth does not need to be 
inspired. Nothing needs inspiration except a 
falsehood or a mistake. Where truth ends, 
where probability stops, inspiration begins. 
A fact never went into partnership with a miracle. 
Truth does not need the assistance of miracle. 

—Some Mistakes of Moses. 








































January 17. 


January IS. 


January 19. 


January 20. 










January 21. 



Y physical liberty I mean the right to do any¬ 
thing which does not interfere with the happi¬ 
ness of another. By intellectual liberty I 
mean the right to think right and the right to 
think wrong. Thought is the means by which we en¬ 
deavor to arrive at truth. If we know the truth already 
we need not think. All that can be required is honesty 
of purpose. — Liberty of Man, Woman and Child. 

" January 22. - 


HEOLOGY is not a science. If it were God 
would forgive his children for being mistaken 
about it. If it could be proved like geology, 
or astronomy, there would be no merit in be¬ 
lieving it. 



—Interviews on Talmage. 


January 23. 



HE most important thing in this world is lib¬ 
erty. More important than food or clothes— 
more important than gold or houses—more 
important than all religions, is the liberty of 


man. 


—Argument in Trial for Blasphemy. 


January 2^. 



Y gospel of health will bring life. My gospel 
of intelligence, my gospel of good living, my 
gospel of good-fellowship will cover the world 
with happy homes. My doctrine will put 
carpets upon your floors, pictures upon your walls. My 
doctrine will put books upon your shelves, ideas in your 
minds. 


—What Must We Do to Be Saved? 






































January 21 


January <ViV • 


January 23. 



January 21}. 










— . . ' January 25. — . - ■■ - 

HIS world is like a great orange-tree, and we 
are oranges. Let us squeeze life so that when 
death comes we can say, You are welcome to 
the withered shell. Happiness comes from no¬ 
ble doing and the doing of what you believe to be your 
duty. Y r ou lessen poverty by teaching men to rely on 
themselves, but what you want is to take superstition 
from the shoulders of industry. —Which Way? 

- Ja n uary 26. . ■ 

WOULD rather listen to Tristan and Isolde— 
that Mississippi of melody—where the great 
notes winged like eagles lift the soul above 
the cares and griefs of this weary world—than 
to all the orthodox sermons ever preached. I would 
rather look at the Venus de Milo than to read the Pres¬ 
byterian creed. 

—Myth and Miracle. 

- January 27. - 

HE time will come when the truly intelligent 
man cannot be happy, cannot be satisfied, when 
millions of his fellow-men are hungry and 
naked. The time will come when in every 
heart will be the perfume of pity’s sacred flower. 

—How to Reform Mankind. 





January 28. 



ORTUNATE is that nation great enough to 
know the great. Intelligence, integrity and 
courage are the great pillars that support the 
State. 

How poor this world would be without its graves, 
without the memory of its mighty dead. Only the voice¬ 
less speak forever. 


—Tribute to Roscoe Conkling. 







































January 25. 


January 26. 


January 27. 










—- January 29. --- ——— 

E was born among tlie poor in a country 
where children were burdens, where intellectual 
liberty was infidelity. Poverty was his mother. 
Necessity was his master. . . . He died in 

the land his genius defended, under the flag he gave to 
the skies. His life was what the world calls a failure, 
and what history calls success. 

—Thomas Paine. 
. Jdinia nj 30. — --— —— 

PEETHINKERS should make the Sabbath a 
day of mirth and music, a day to spend with 
wife and child—a day of games, and books and 
dreams—a day to put fresh flowers above our 
sleeping dead—a day of memory and hope, of love and 
rest. 

—Some Mistakes of Moses. 

J ( j n U(l T y ft! # — —— 

APPINESS is the only good. The way to be 
happy is to make others happy. Other things 
being equal, that man is happiest who is nearest 
just—who is truthful, merciful and intelligent 
—in other words, the one who lives in accordance with 
the conditions in life. 

—Interviews. 







-a 




































January 2D. 


January 30. 


January 31. 














H E loved the winter days, the whirl and drift of snow— 
all forms of frost—the rage and fury of the storm, 
when in the forest desolate and stripped, the brave old 
pine towers green and grand—a prophecy of Spring. 




























































































































- February 1. -- 

HE time to be liappy is now, and the place to 
be happy is here. Reason is the lamp of the 
mind—the only torch of j^rogress; and instead 
of blowing that out and depending upon dark¬ 
ness and dogma, it is far better to increase that sacred 
light. 

—Interviews. 



February 2. 


ET every human being do all the good he can, 
and let him bind up the wounds of his fellow- 
creatures, and at the same time put forth every 
effort to hasten the coming of a better day. 

—How to Reform Mankind. 

—-- February 5.——---— 

F I understand myself, I advocate only the doc¬ 
trines that in my judgment will make this 
world happier and better. If I know myself, 
I advocate only those things that will make a 
man a better citizen, a better father, a kinder husband— 
that will make a woman a better wife, a better mother— 
doctrines that will fill every home with sunshine and 

—Argument in the Blasphemy Case. 

- February - 

BOYE all creeds, above all religions, after all 
is that divine thing, Humanity; and now and 
then in shipwreck on the wide, wide sea, or 
’mid the rocks and breakers of some cruel 
shore, or where the serpents of flame writhe and hiss, 
some glorious heart, some cliivalric soul, does a deed 
that glitters like a star, and gives the lie to all the 
dogmas of superstition. — Liberty. 










































February 1. 


February 2 


February 3. 


February Jy 











- February J.- 

EAR paralyzes the brain. Progress is born of 
courage. Fear believes—courage doubts. Fear 
falls upon the earth and prays—courage stands 
erect and thinks. Fear retreats—courage ad¬ 
vances. Fear is barbarism—courage is civilization. 
Fear believes in witchcraft, in devils and in ghosts. 
Fear is religion—courage is science. 

—The Ghosts. 

- February 6. - 

OWN, forever down, with any religion that re¬ 
quires upon its ignorant altar the sacrifice of 
the goddess Reason, that compels her to abdi¬ 
cate forever the shining throne of tlis soul, 
strips from her form the imperial purple, snatches from 
her hand the sceptre of thought and makes her the 
bond-woman of a senseless faith ! 

—Thomas Paine. 

- February 7.- 

E did not fear to stand alone. His brain took 

counsel of his heart. To every foe he offered 
reconciliation’s hand. He loved this land of 
ours and added to its glory through the world. 

—Tribute to H. W. Beecher. 
ALL the sciences—except theology—are eager for facts 
—hungry for the truth. On the brow of a finder of a 
fact the laurel is placed. — The Truth. 

- February 8. - 





RT is the highest form of expression. Through 
art thoughts become visible and exist for the 
sake of expression. Back of forms are the 
desire, the longing, the brooding creative in¬ 
stinct, the maternity of mind and the passion that give 
pose and swell, outline and color. 



Art and Morality. 







































February o. 


February 6. 


February 7. 


February 8. 










. . ■ February 9 .■- 

LL our sympathies should he with the men who 
work, who toil; for the women who labor for 
themselves and children; because we know 
that labor is the foundation o*f all, and that 
those who labor are the caryatides that support the 
structure and glittering dome of civilization and prog¬ 
ress. 

—How to Reform Mankind. 

-- February 10. - 

E men were incapable of suffering, the words 
right and wrong never could have been spoken. 
If man were destitute of imagination, the 
flower of pity never could have blossomed in 
his heart. We suffer—we cause others to suffer—those 
that we love—and of this fact conscience is born. 

—Shakespeare. 




February 11. 



IKACLES are not simply impossible, but 
they are unthinkable by any man capable of 
thinking. Now an intelligent man cannot be¬ 
lieve that a miracle ever was, or ever will be 
performed. Ignorance is the soil iu which belief in 
miracles grows. 

—Superstition. 

——-—— February 12. -- 



HE great orator idealizes the real, transfigures 
the common, makes even the inanimate throb 
and thrill, fills the gallery of imagination with 
statues and pictures perfect in form and color, 
brings to light the gold hoarded by memory the mi^er, 
shows the glittering coin to the spendthrift hope, en¬ 
riches the brain, ennobles the heart, and quickens the 
conscience. — Abraham Lincoln. 







































February 9 . 


February 10, 


February 11. 


February 12 










February 13. 


S far as I am concerned I wisli to be out on the 
high seas. I wish to take my chances with wind 
and wave and star. And I had rather go down 
in the glory and grandeur of the storm than 
to rot in any orthodox harbor whatever. 

—Liberty of Man, Woman and Child. 



February Ilf. 



OYE is the only bow on life’s dark cloud. It 
is the morning and evening star. It shines 
upon the babe, and sheds its radiance on the 
quiet tomb. It is the mother of art, inspirer 
of poet, patriot and philosopher. It is the air and light 
of every heart—builder of every home, kindler of every 
fire on every hearth. It was the first to dream of im¬ 
mortality. 

■ February 15. - 



NEW era is dawning on the world. We are 
beginning to believe in the religion of useful¬ 
ness. Tell the truth, develop your brains, use 
your senses, and hold high the torch of Reason. 


—The Truth. 


February 16. 


0 do all the good you can is to be a saint in 
the highest sense. To do all the good you 
can; this is to be really and truly spiritual. 
To relieve suffering, to put the star of hope in 
the midnight of despair, this is truly holiness. This is 
the religion of Science. 



—How to Reform Mankind. 







































February 13. 


February H. 


February 15. 


February 16. 










February 17. 



OTHING can be grander tlian to sow tlie seeds 
of noble thoughts and virtuous deeds—to lib¬ 
erate the bodies and the souls of men—to earn 
the grateful homage of a race—and then in 
life’s last shadowy hour to know that the historian of 
Liberty will be compelled to write your name. 

—Tribute to Roscoe Conkling. 


February 18. 


HERE are no words intense enough—with heart 
enough—to express my admiration for the 
great and gallant souls who have in every age 
and every land upheld the right, and who have 
lived and died for freedom’s sake. 

—Tribute to Roscoe Conkling. 



February 19. 



HERE is a law higher than any statute. There 
is a law higher than any constitution. It is 
the law of the human conscience, and no man 
who is a man will defile and pollute his con¬ 
science at the bidding of any legislature. Above all 
things one should maintain his self-respect, and there is 
but one way to do that, and that is to live in accordance 
with your highest ideal. — Argument in Blasphemy Case. 


February 20. 



CIENCE is the great physician. His touch 
has. given sight. He has made the lame to 
leap, the deaf to hear, the dumb to speak, and 
in the pallid face his hand has set the rose of 
health. Science has given his beloved sleep and wrapped 
in happy dreams the throbbing nerves of pain. Science 
is the destroyer of disease, builder of happy homes, the 
preserver of life and love. —Myth and Miracle. 







































February 18. 


February 19. 


February 20. 










1 ■ February 21. — 

BELIEF in one God is claimed to be a dogma 
of almost infinite importance, that without this 
belief civilization is impossible, and that this 
fact is the sun around which all the virtues 
revolve. For my part, I think it infinitely more im¬ 
portant to believe in men. Theology is a superstition— 
Humanity is religion. 

—Some Mistakes of Moses. 
- February 22. — 

HEBE can be nothing more utterly subversive 

of all that is really valuable than the sup¬ 

pression of honest thought. No man worthy 
of the form he bears will at the command of 
church or state solemnly repeat a creed his reason 
scorns. 

—Individuality. 




February 23. 



HE hands that help are better far 
Than lips that pray. 

Love is the ever gleaming star 
That leads the way— 

That shines not on vague worlds of bliss, 

But on a paradise in this. 

—Declaration of the Free. 


February 2lf. 



HEBE is only one way to be happy, and that is 
to make somebody else so, and you cannot be 
happy by going cross lots; you have got to 
go the regular turnpike road. 

—Liberty of Man, Woman and Child. 


I THINK more of reasons than of reputation, more of 
principles than of persons, more of nature than of 
names, more of facts than of faiths. 

—Interviews on Talmage. 







































February 21. 


February 22. 


February 23. 


February 2l[. 










February 25. 


N the universe there is no chance, no caprice. 
Every event has parents. 

That which has not happened could not. The 
present is the necessary product of all the 
past, the necessary cause of all the future. 

—Religion. 



February 26. 



F you have but a dollar in the world, and you 
have got to spend it, spend it like a king; 
spend it as though it were a dry leaf and you 
the owner of unbounded forests ! That’s the 


way to spend it. 


—Liberty of Man, Woman and Child. 


February 27. 



ORDS are the garments of thought, the robes 
of ideas. Some are as rude as the skins of 
wild beasts, and others glisten and glitter like 
silk and gold. They have been born of hatred 
and revenge ; of love and sacrifice; of hope and fear ; of 
agony and joy. These w r ords are born of the terror and 
beauty of nature. The stars have fashioned them. In 
them mingle the darkness and dawn. —The Ghosts. 


February 28. 



00D fathers and mothers wish their children 
to advance, to overcome obstacles which baffled 
them, and to correct the errors of their educa¬ 
tion. If you wish to reflect credit upon your 
parents, accomplish more than they did, solve problems 
that they could not understand, and build better than 
they knew. 


Some Mistakes of Moses. 








































February 2b. 


February 26. 


February 27. 


February 28 










February 29. 


ITH liim the man was greater than the king, 
the woman than the queen. The greatest were 
the noblest and the noblest were those who 
loved their fellow-men the best, the ones who 
filled their lives with generous deeds. 

—Robert Burns. 
































- February 29. 













E VERY flower that gives its fragrance to the wandering ^ 
air leaves its influence on the soul of man. The wheel 
and swoop of the winged creatures of the air suggest the 
flowing lines of subtle art. The roar and murmur of the 
restless sea, the cataract’s solemn chant, the thunder’s voice, the 
happy babble of the brook, the whispering leaves, the thrilling 
notes of mating birds, the sighing winds, taught man to pour his 
heart in song and gave a voice to grief and hope, to love and 
death. 
























































































- March 1. -- 

HE human race was imprisoned. Through some 
of the prison bars came a few struggling rays 
of light. Against these bars Science pressed 
its pale and thoughtful face, wooed by the holy 
dawn of human advancement. Bar after bar was broken 
away. A few grand men escaped and devoted their 
lives to the liberation of their fellows. 

—Liberty of Man, Woman and Child. 

- March 2. - 

IJMOR is one of the most valuable things in the 
human brain. It is the torch of the mind—it 
sheds light. Humor is the readiest test of 
truth—of the natural, of the sensible—and 
when you take from a man all sense of humor, there will 

only be enough left to make a bigot. 

—Argument in Blasphemy Case. 

——— March 3. —— 

HE firmament inlaid with suns is the dome of 
the real cathedral. The interpreters of nature 
are the true and only priests. In the great 
creed are all the truths that lips have uttered, 
and in the real litany will be found all the ecstasies 
and aspirations of the soul, all dreams of joy, all hopes 
for nobler, fuller life. 

—How to Reform Mankind. 

- March 4 - - - 

HUE religion is the perfume of a free and grate¬ 
ful heart. True religion is a subordination of 
the passions to the perceptions of the intellect. 
True religion is not a theory—it is a practice. 
It is not a creed—it is a life. —The Ghosts. 

TO plow is to pray ; to plant is to prophesy ; aud the 
harvest answers and fulfills. 











































March 1. 


March 2. 


March 3. 


March J/. 










- March 5. -* 

LL should be taught that the highest ambition 
is to be happy, and to add to the well-being of 
others ; that place and power are not necessary 
to success; that the desire to acquire great 
wealth is a kind of insanity. They should be taught 
that it is a waste of energy, a waste of thought, a waste 
of life, to acquire what you do not really use for the 
benefit of yourself or others. —How to Reform Mankind. 

--—* March 6. —— - - 

E should be intellectually hospitable. Preju¬ 
dice, egotism, hatred, contempt, disdain, are 
the enemies of truth and progress. 

—The Truth. 

THE holiest temple beneath the stars is a home that love 
has built. And the holiest altar in all the wide world is 
the fireside around which gather father and mother and 
sweet babes. —What Must We Do to Be Saved? 

.. .. March 7.- 

UPERSTITION is the child of slavery. Free- 
tliouglit will give us truth. When all have the 
right to think and to express their thoughts, 
every brain will give to all the best it has. 
The world will then be filled with intellectual wealth. 

—Liberty of Man, Woman and Child. 

-- March S. ---- 

T is far more important that you love your 
children than that you love Jesus Christ. And 
why ? If he is God you cannot help him, but 
you can plant a little flower of happiness in 
every footstep of the child, from the cradle until you die 
in that child’s arms. Let me tell you to-day it is far 
more important to build a home than to erect a church. 

—What Must We Do to Be Saved? 











































March 5 



March 6. 





— March 7. 




March S.. - 


















March 9. 



UT Genius knows all time. For liim the dead 
all live and breathe, and act their countless 
parts again. All human life is in his now, and 
every moment feels the thrill of all to be. 


—Tribute to H. W. Beecher. 


— March 10. 1 

RELIGION, to command the respect of intelli¬ 
gent men, should rest on a foundation of estab¬ 
lished facts. It should appeal, not to passions, 
not to hope and fear, but to the judgment. It 
should ask that all the faculties of the mind, all the 
senses, should assemble and take counsel together, and 
that its claims be passed upon and tested without preju¬ 
dice, without fear. —The Truth. 



March 11. 



ELIGIONS are for a day. They are the clouds. 
Humanity is the eternal blue. Religions are 
the waves of the sea. These waves depend upon 
the force and direction of the wind—that is to 
say, of passion; but Humanity is the great sea. And so 
our religions change from day to day, and it is a blessed 
thing that they do. 

—Argument in Blasphemy Case. 


March 12. 


BELIEVE in the gospel of good living. You 
cannot make any god happy by fasting. Let 
us have good food, and let us have it well 
cooked—and it is a thousand times better to 
know how to cook than it is to understand any theology 
in the world. 



—What Must We Do to Be Saved? 







































March 9. 


March 10. 


March 11. 


March 12. 










March 13. 



loved. 


HAVE infinite respect for tlie inventors, the 
thinkers, the discoverers, and above all, for the 
unknown millions who have, without the hope 
of fame, lived and labored for the ones they 

—Interviews. 


- March Vy. » -— 

OR all the blessings that we now enjoy—for 
progress in every form, for science and art—for 
all that has lengthened life, that has conquered 
disease, that has lessened pain ; for raiment, 
roof and food, for music in its highest forms, 
for all this we are indebted to the worldly—to those 
who turned their attention to the affairs of this life. 

—Myth and Miracle. 

-—--— March 15. -—— -— —- 




YERY sermon in which men have been told 
that they could save their souls by believing 
has been an injury. Such sermons dull the 
moral sense and subvert the true conception of 


virtue and duty. 


—The Ghosts. 


.March 13 . 



HE religionist of to-day wants the ship of his 
soul to lie at the wharf of orthodoxy and rot in 
the sun. He delights to hear the sails of old 
opinions flap against the masts of old creeds. 
He loves to see the joints and the sides open and gape 
in the sun, and it is a kind of a bliss for him to repeat 
again and again : “ Let me go backward rather than 
forward.” — Liberty of Man, Woman and Child. 







































March 13. 


March Ilf. 


March 15. 


March 16. 










— ■ Ma rch 17. - - 

T seems that Adam saw nothing that struck 
his fancy. The fairest ape, the spriglitliest 
chimpanzee, the loveliest baboon, the most be¬ 
witching orangoutang, the most fascinating 
gorilla failed to touch with love’s sweet pain poor 
Adam’3 lonely heart. Let us rejoice that this was so. 
Had he fallen in love then, there never would have been 
a Freethinker in this world. —Some Mistakes of Moses. 

■ March 18. - 




HE theologian arrives at the unthinkable, the 
inconceivable, and he calls this God, The sci¬ 
entist arrives at the unthinkable, the incon¬ 
ceivable, and calls it the Unknown. 


—The Foundation of Faith. 


March 19. 



BELIEVE in intellectual hospitality. I love 
men that have a little horizon to their minds— 
a little sky, a little scope. I hate anything 
that is narrow and pinched and withered and 
mean and crawling, and that is willing to live on dust. 
I believe in creating such an atmosphere that things will 
burst into blossom. 

—Argument in Blasphemy Case. 


March 20. 


NFIDELITY is liberty ; all religion is slavery 
In every creed man is the slave of God—woman 
is the slave of man and the sweet children are 
the slaves of all. We do not want creeds; we 
want knowledge—we want happiness. —Thomas Paine. 



TRUTH is made no worse by the one who tells it, and a 
lie gets no real benefit from the reputation of its author. 

—Interviews. 







































March IS. 


March 19. 


March 20. 










March 21. 



EARLY all people stand in great horror of an¬ 
nihilation, and yet to give up your individuality 
is to annihilate yourself. Mental slavery is 
mental death, and every man who has given up 
his intellectual freedom is the living coffin of his dead 
soul. In this sense, every church is a cemetery and 
every creed an epitaph. 

—Individuality. 


March 22. 



VERY man must bear the consequences at least 
of his own actions. If he puts his hands in 
the fire, his hands must smart, and not the 
hands of another. In other words, each man 


must eat the fruit of the tree he plants. 


—Interviews. 


March 23. 



CIENCE is gradually widening the area within 
which men of genius can be produced. We are 
conquering the north with houses, clothing, 
food and fuel. We are in many ways over¬ 
coming the heat of the south. If we attend to this 
world instead of another we may in time cover the land 
with men and women of genius. 

—Liberty of Man, Woman and Child. 


March 21/. 



HE undressed is vulgar—the nude is pure. The 
statues, frankly, proudly nude, whose free and 
perfect limbs have never known the sacrilege 
of clothes, were and are as free from taint, as 
pure, as stainless, as the image of the morning star 
trembling in a drop of perfumed dew. 

—Art and Morality. 







































March 21. 


March 22. 


March 23. 


March 2). 










- March 25 . ■- 

ORALITY is the harmony between act and cir¬ 
cumstance. It is the melody of conduct. A 

great statue does not suggest labor; it seems 

to have been created as a joy. A great painting 
suggests no weariness and no effort; the greater, the 
easier it seems. So a great and splendid life seems to 
have been without effort. 

—Art and Morality. 

11 March 26. -*■ 

N a little while a man will find that he cannot 
steal without robbing himself. He will find 
that he cannot murder without assassinating 
his own joy. He will find that every crime is 
a mistake. He will find that only that man carries the 
cross who does wrong, and that upon the man who does 
right the cross turns to wings that will bear him upward 
forever. —What Must We Do to Be Saved? 

————— March 27. — 

UPERSTITION is the serpent that crawls and 
hisses in every Eden and fastens its poisonous 
fangs in the hearts of men. It is the deadliest 
foe of the human race. — The Truth. 

MY doctrine will give us health, wealth and happiness. 
That is what I want. That is what I believe in. Give 
us intelligence. —What Must We Do to Be Saved? 

- March 28. ■ 

CIENCE denies the truth of myth and miracle, 
denies that human testimony can substantiate 
the miraculous, denies the existence of the 
supernatural. Science asserts the absolute, the 
unvarying uniformity of nature. Science insists that 
the present is the child of all the past, and that nature 
is forever the same. 






—Myth and Miracle. 







































March 25. 


March 26. 


March 27. 


March 28. 










- March 29. -- 

S man develops, lie places a greater value upon 
liis own rights. Liberty becomes a grander and 
diviner thing. As he values his own rights, he 
begins to value the rights of others. And 
when all men give to all others all the rights they 
claim for themselves this world will be civilized. 

—Liberty of Man, Woman and Child. 

— — March 30. - 




EASON, Observation and Experience, the Holy 
Trinity of Science, have taught us that happi¬ 
ness is the only good; that the time to be 
happy is now, and that the way to be happy is 


to make others so. 


-The Gods. 


March 31. 



HEN we look upon a flower, a painting, a statue, 
a star, or a violet, the more we know, the more 
we have experienced, the more we have thought, 
the more we remember, the more the statue, the 
star, the painting, the violet, has to tell. Nature says 
to me all that I am capable of understanding—gives all 
that I can receive. As with star, or flower, or sea, so 
with a book. — Inspiration. 




































March 30. 












w> 



HERE was within his words the subtle spirit of the 
season’s change—of everything that is, of everything 
that lies between the slumbering seed that, half 
awakened by the April rain, has dreams of heaven’s 
blue and feels the amorous kisses of the sun, and that strange 
tomb wherein the alchemist doth give to death’s cold dust the 
throb and thrill of life again. He saw with loving eyes the 
willows of the meadow streams grow red beneath the glance of 
Spring—the grass along the marsh’s edge—the stir of life be¬ 
neath the withered leaves—the moss beneath the drift of 
snow—the flowers that give their bosoms to the first south 
wind that woos—the sad and timid violets that only bear the 
gaze of love from eyes half closed—the ferns where fancy 
gives a thousand forms with but a single plan—the green and 
sunny slopes enriched with daisy’s silver and the cowslip’s gold. 


H 


=r 







































































































































■ ■ ■ April 1. - 

E know the difference between hope and knowl¬ 
edge ; we hope for happiness here and dream of 
joy hereafter, but we do not know. We cannot 
assert, we can only hope. We can have our 
dream. In the wide night our star can shine and shed 
its radiance on the graves of those we love. We can 
bend above our pallid dead and say, that beyond this 
life there are no sighs, no tears, no breaking hearts. 

- April 2. -- 

HE idea of immortality that like a sea has 
ebbed and flowed in the human heart, 
was not born of any book, nor of any creed, nor 
of any religion. It was born of human affec¬ 
tion, and it will continue to ebb and flow beneath the 
mists and clouds of doubt and darkness as long as love 
kisses the lips of death. It is the rainbow—Hope 
shining upon the fears of grief. _ The Ghosts. 

- April 3. - 

RIESTS have invented a crime called “ blas¬ 
phemy,” and behind that crime hypocrisy has 
crouched for thousands of years. There is but 
one blasphemy, and that is injustice. There is 
but one worship, and that is justice! 

—What Must We Do to Be Saved? 

- April Jf. - 

O man and no body of men can answer the 
questions of the Whence and Whither. The 
mystery of existence cannot be explained by 
the intellect of man. Back of life, of existence, 
we cannot go; beyond death we cannot see. All duties, 
all obligations, all knowledge, all experience, are for 
this life, for this world. 






—The Truth. 








































April 1. 



April 3. 


April A 










- April 5. - 

APPINESS is the true end and aim of life. It 
is the task of intelligence to ascertain the con¬ 
ditions of happiness, and when found the truly 
wise will live in accordance with them. By 
happiness is meant not simply the joy of eating and 
drinking—the gratification of the appetite—but good, 
well-being in the highest and noblest forms. 

—Myth and Miracle. 

- ■ ■ April 6. " 




HE inventor of the plow did more good than 
the maker of the first rosary; because, say 
what you will, plowing is better than praying, 
but we cannot live by praying without plowing. 


So I put my faith in the plow. 


—Interviews. 


April 7. 



HIS is my doctrine: Give every human being 
every right you claim for yourself. Keep your 
mind open to the influences of nature. Receive 
new thoughts with hospitality. Let us ad¬ 


vance. 


—Liberty of Man, Woman and Child. 


April 8. 



HE poet lives in the world of thought and feel¬ 
ing, and to this the dramatist adds the world 
of action. He creates characters that seem to 
act in accordance with their own natures and 
independently of him. He compresses lives into hours, 
tells us the secrets of the heart, shows us the spring of 
action. 


—On Shakespeare. 







































April 7. 


April 8. 










- April 9. - 

HE heretics have not thought and suffered and 
died in vain. Every heretic has been, and is, a 
ray of light. Not in vain did Voltaire, that 
great man, point from the foot of the Alps the 
finger of scorn at every hypocrite in Europe. Not in 
vain were the splendid utterances of the Infidels, while 
beyond all price are the discoveries of science. 

—Heretics and Heresies. 

-- April 10. - 




ELIGION can never reform mankind, because 
religion is slavery. It is far better to be free, 
to leave the forts and barricades of fear, to 
stand erect and face the future with a smile. 


—Religion. 


April 11. 



HENEVER I see an exceedingly solemn man, I 
know he is an exceedingly stupid man. No 
man of any humor ever founded a religion— 
never. Humor sees both sides. While reason 
is the holy light, humor carries the lantern, and the man 
with a keen sense of humor is preserved from the solemn 
stupidities of superstition. 

—What Must We Do to Be Saved? 

■ ■ - — - April 12. - 



APPINESS is the joy that springs from obli¬ 
gation discharged, from duty done, from gener¬ 
ous acts, from being true to the ideal, from a 
perception of the beautiful in nature, art and 
conduct; the happiness that is born of and gives birth 
to poetry and music, that follows the gratification of the 
highest wants. 


—Myth and Miracle. 







































April 0. 


April 10. 


April 11. 


April 12. 










April 13. 



HE church of to-day lacks sympathy; the theo¬ 
logians are without affection. After all, sym¬ 
pathy is genius. A man who really sympathizes 
with another understands him. A man who 
sympathizes with religion instantly sees the good that is 
in it, and a man who sympathizes with the right sees 
the evil that a creed contains. 

—Argument in Trial for Blasphemy. 

- April Ilf. - 



AN advances only as he overcomes the obstruc¬ 
tions of nature, and this can be done only by 
labor and by thought. Labor is the founda¬ 
tion of all. Without labor, and without great 


labor, progress is impossible. 


-The Ghosts. 


- April 15. ——— 

RT civilizes because it enlightens, develops, 
strengthens, ennobles. It deals with the beau¬ 
tiful, with the passionate, with the ideal. It 
is the child of the heart. To be great it must 
deal with the human. It must be in accordance with 
the experience, with the hopes, with the fears, and with 
the possibilities of man. 

—Art and Morality. 

- April 16. - 

F it be good for man to find the truth—good for 
him to be intellectually honest and hospitable, 
then it is good for others to know the truth 
thus found. —The Truth. 

I BELONG to the republic of intellectual liberty, and 
only those are good citizens of that republic who depend 
upon persuasion, and only those are traitors who resort 
to brute force. —What Must We Do to Be Saved? 









































April Ilf. 


April 15. 


April 16. 










- April 17. 1 

EAR is the dungeon of the mind, and supertition 
is a dagger with which hypocrisy assassinates 
the soul. Courage is liberty. I am in favor 
of absolute freedom of thought. In the realm 
of mind every one is a monarch; every one is robed, 
sceptered, and crowned, and every one wears the purple 
of authority. 

—What Must We Do to Be Saved? 
- April IS. - 

S long as the church has the power to close the 
lips of men, so long and no longer will super¬ 
stition rule this world. Blasphemy is the 
word that the majority hisses into the ear of 
the few. After every argument of the church has been 
answered, has been refuted, then the church cries “blas¬ 
phemy.” 

—Argument in Blasphemy Case. 

-- April 19. —.—- — 

FACT will fit every other fact in the uuiverse, 
because it is the product of all the other facts. 
A lie will fit nothing except another lie made 
for the express purpose of fitting it. After a 
while the man gets tired of lying, and then the last lie 
will not fit the next fact, and there is an opportunity to 
use a miracle. Just at that point, it is necessary to 
have a little inspiration. — Some Mistakes of Moses. 

- April 20. ... ■ 

WANT no heaven for which I must give my 
reason; no happiness in exchange for my lib¬ 
erty ; and no immortality that demands the 
surrender of my individuality. Better rot in 
the windowless tomb to which there is no door but the 
red mouth of the pallid worm, than wear the jeweled 
collar even of a god. 






—Individuality. 







































April 17. 


April 18. 


April 19. 


April 20. 










April 21. 



FIND that in this day and generation the 
meanest men have the lowest estimate of 
woman ; that the greater the man is, the more 
he thinks of mother, wife and daughter. I also 
find that just in the proportion that he has lost confi¬ 
dence in the polygamy of Jehovah and in the advice and 
philosophy of St. Paul, he believes in the rights and 
liberties of woman. —Interviews. 


April 22. 



URELY investigation is better than unthinking 
faith. Surely reason is a better guide than 
fear. This world should be controlled by the 
living, not by the dead. The grave is not a 
throne and a corpse is not a king. Man should not try 
to live on ashes. 

—Liberty of Man, Woman and Child. 


April 23.' 



H AKESPEARE was an intellectual ocean, whose 
waves touched all the shores of thought; . . . 
upon which fell the gloom and darkness of 
despair and death and all the sunlight of con¬ 
tent and love, and within which was the inverted sky lit 
with the eternal stars—an intellectual ocean—towards 
which all rivers ran, and from which now the isles and 
continents of thought receive their dew and rain. 

-—— April 2If. ■ ■ ■■■■■ ' ■ ■ 



F we wish to improve the condition of mankind 
—if we wish for nobler men and women—we 
must develop the brain, we must encourage 
thought and investigation. We must convince 
the world that credulity is a vice; that there is no virtue 
in believing without or against evidence, and that the 
really honest man is true to himself. We must fill the 
world with intellectual light. —Myth and Miracle. 







































April 21. 


April 22. 


April 23. 


April 2\. 










April 25. 


HOSE who prevent or try to prevent the ex¬ 
pression of honest thought, are the foes of civ¬ 
ilization, the enemies of truth. Nothing can 
exceed the egotism and impudence of the man 
who claims the right to express his thought and denies 
the same right to others. 

—The Truth. 

■ April 26. .. . .— 

E, too, have our religion, and it is this: Help 
for the living, Hope for the dead. 

—At a Child’s Grave. 


MY doctrine is this: For good, return good; for evil, 
return justice without admixture of revenge. 

—Benefits for Injuries. 




April 21. 



ET us throw away these superstitions and take 
the higher, nobler ground that every day should 
be rendered sacred by some loving act, by in¬ 
creasing the happiness of man, giving birth to 
noble thoughts, helping the unfortunate, lifting the fallen, 
dispelling gloom, destroying prejudice, defending the 
helpless and filling homes with light and love. 

—Some Mistakes of Moses. 


Apr il 28. 



ITH every drop of my blood I hate and execrate 
every form of tyranny, every form of slavery. 
I hate dictation. I love liberty. 

-—Liberty of Man, Woman and Child. 


WE do not need the forgiveness of gods, but of our¬ 
selves and the ones we injure. Restitution without 
repentance is far better than repentance without restitu¬ 
tion. — Myth and Miracle. 







































April 25. 


April 26. 


April 27. 


April 28. 










April 29. 



HRISTIANITY lias always opposed every for¬ 
ward movement of tlie human race. Across 
the highway of progress it has always been 
building breastworks of bibles, tracts, com¬ 
mentaries, prayer-books, creeds, dogmas, and platforms, 
and at every advance Christians have gathered behind 
these heaps of rubbish and shot the poisoned arrows of 
malice at the-soldiers of freedom. — Individuality. 

- April 30. ■ 

HE telescope destroyed the firmament, did away 
with the heaven of the New Testament, ren¬ 
dered the ascension of our Lord and the as¬ 
sumption of his mother infinitely absurd, crum¬ 
bled to chaos the gates and palaces of the New Jerusalem, 
and in their places gave to man a wilderness of worlds. 

•—Some Mistakes of Moses. 


































April 29. 


April 30. 











A'WUUsti 


Y OU stand in orchards where the blossoms fall like snow, 
where the birds nest and sing, and painted moths make 
aimless journeys through the happy air. You live the 
lives of those who till the earth, and walk amid the 
perfumed fields, hear the reaper’s song and feel the breadth 
and scope of earth and sky. 


er clarde 


M 
















































































































































- May 1. - -- - 

OYE is tlie magician, the enchanter that changes 
worthless things to joy, and makes right royal 
kings and queens of common clay. It is the 
perfume of that wondrous flower, the heart, 
and without that sacred passion, that divine swoon, we 
are less than beasts; but with it earth is heaven, and 
we are gods. 

—Love. 

- May 2 .« . — 

NTIL every soul is freely permitted to investi¬ 
gate every book, and creed, and dogma for 
itself, the world cannot be free. Mankind will 
be enslaved until there is mental grandeur 
enough to allow each man to have his thought and say. 
This earth will be a paradise when men can upon all 
these questions differ, and yet grasp each other’s hands 
as friends. — Some Mistakes of Moses. 

- May 3. - 

E walk according to our light, 

Pursue the path 

That leads to honor’s stainless height, 

Careless of wrath 
Or curse of God or priestly spite, 

Longing to know and do the right. 

—Declaration of the Free. 





May Jf. 



HARITY should hold the scales in which are 
weighed the deeds of men. Peculiarities, traits 
born of locality and surroundings—these are 
but the dust of the race—these are acci¬ 
dents, drapery clothes, fashions, that have nothing to do 
with the man except to hide his character. They are 
the clouds that cling to mountains. 

—Tribute to Roscoe Conkling. 








































May 2. 


May 3. 


May Jf. 










- May 5. - 

ANITY rests on the opinion of others—pride 
on onr own. The source of vanity is from 
without—of pride from within. Vanity is a 
vane that turns, a willow that bends with every 
breeze—pride is the oak that defies the storm. One is 
cloud, the other rock. One is weakness, the other 
strength. 

—Tribute to Roscoe Conkling. 

- May 6. . . . . ■ ■■ ■■■■ 

BELIEVE in the gospel of cheerfulness, the 
Gospel of Good Nature; the Gospel of Good 
Health. Let us pay some attention to our 
bodies. Take care of our bodies and our souls 
will take care of themselves. And I believe the time 
will come when the public thought w r ill be so great and 
grand that it'will be looked upon as infamous to per¬ 
petuate disease. —What Must We Do to Be Saved? 

-- May 7 . -. ■ — 





HE time will come when we will study our¬ 
selves, and understand the laws of health, and 
then we will say: We are under obligations to 
put the flag of health in the cheeks of our 


children. 


—What Must We Do to Be Saved? 


May 8 . 



E must teach our fellowmen that honor comes 
from within, not from without; that honor 
must be earned, that it is not alms, that even 
an infinite god could not enrich the beggar’s 
palm with the gem of honor. —Myth and Miracle. 

JUST in proportion that we have done away with what 
is known as orthodox Christianity, humanity has taken 
its place. — Interviews. 








































May 5. 


May 6. 


May 7 . 


May 8. 










May 9. 


T will not do to say that certain ideas are 
sacred, and that man has not the right to in¬ 
vestigate and test these ideas for himself. 
Who knows that they are sacred ? Can any¬ 
thing be sacred to us that we do not know to be true? 

—The Truth. 



May 10. 



E are laying the foundations of the grand temple 
of the future, . . . wherein, with appropriate 
rites, will be celebrated the religion of hu¬ 
manity. We are doing what little we can to 
hasten the coming of the day when society shall cease 
producing millionaires and mendicants—gorged indolence 
and famished industry—truth in rags and superstition 
robed and crowned. —The Gods. 


May 11. 



HAYE sometimes thought that it will not make 
great and splendid characters to rock children 
in the cradle of hypocrisy. I believe men will 
be nearer honest in business, in politics, 
grander in art—in everything that is good and grand 
and beautiful, if they are taught from the cradle to the 
coffin to tell their honest opinion. 

—The Great Infidels. 


May 1 


2 . 



HE scientist insists that the Unknown is not 
changed so far as he knows by prayers of 
people or priests. He admits that he does not 
know whether the Unknown is good or bad— 
whether he or it is worthy of worship. He does not 
say that the Unknown is God, that it created substance 
and force, life and thought. He simply says that of the 
Unknown he knows nothing. —The Foundations of Faith. 







































May 9. 


May 10. 


May 11. 


May 12. 











May 13. 



UPEESTITION, tlie mother of those hideous 
twins, Fear and Faith, from her throne of 
skulls, still rules the world, and will until the 
mind of woman ceases to be the property of 


priests. 


—Individuality. 


May 11[. 



HE doctrine of forgiveness—the idea that some¬ 
body else can suffer in place of the guilty—the 
notion that just at the last the whole account 
can be settled—these ideas, doctrines, and 
notions are calculated to fill penitentiaries. 


—Interviews. 


- - May 15. — 

S long as men and women are afraid of the 
church, as long as a minister inspires fear, as 
long as people reverence a thing simply because 
they do not understand it, as long as it is re¬ 
spectable to lose your self-respect, as long as the church 
has power, as long as mankind worships a book, just so 
long will the world be filled with intellectual paupers 
and vagrants. — Liberty of Man, Woman and Child. 

- May 16. - 

HY should we pursue the truth ? and why 
should we investigate and reason ? And why 
should we be mentally honest and hospitable ? 
And why should we express our honest 
thoughts ? To this there is but one auswer: for the 
benefit of mankind. —The Truth. 

ALL fundamental laws were born simply of the instinct 
of self-defense. — Some Mistakes of Moses. 









































May 13. 


May Ilf. 


May 15. 


May 16. 










- May 17. 



HE world is a dictionary of the mind, and in 
the dictionary of things genius discovers anal¬ 
ogies, resemblances, and parallels amid oppo¬ 
sites, likeness in difference, and corroboration 


in contradiction. 


—Art and Morality. 


— ]\{ a y - 

ANGUAGE is but a multitude of pictures. 
Nearly every word is a work of art, a picture 
represented by a sound, and this sound repre¬ 
sented by a mark, and this mark gives not only 
the sound, but the picture of something in the outward 
world and the picture of something within the mind, 
and with these words which were once pictures other 
pictures are made. —Art and Morality. 

- May 19. ■■ ■ ■ . 



N every college truth should be a welcome guest. 
Every professor should be a finder, and every 
student a learner of facts. Theology and in¬ 
tellectual dishonesty go together. The teacher 
of children should be intelligent and perfectly sincere. 

—Myth and Miracle. 



May 20. 



TJMANITY has built all the asylums, all the 
hospitals. Humanity, not Christianity, has 
done these things. The people of this country 
are all willing to be taxed that the insane may 
be cared for, that the sick, the helpless, and the desti¬ 
tute may be provided for, not because they are Chris¬ 
tians but because they are humane; and they are not 
humane because they are Christians. _ Interviews. 







































May 17. 


May IS. 


May ID. 


May 20. 










- — - — May 21. -- ■ - ■■ — ■ — ^ 

RUTH lias always been in favor of free speech 
—has always asked to be investigated—has 
always longed to be known and understood. 
Freedom, discussion, honesty, investigation 
and courage are the friends and allies of truth. Truth 
loves the light and the open field. It appeals to the senses 
—to the judgment, the reason, to all the higher and 
nobler faculties and powers of the mind. —The Truth. 

■ May 22. - ■ 

IYILIZATION rests upon the family. The 
good family is the unit of good government. 
The virtues grow about the holy hearth of 
home—they cluster, bloom, and shed their 
perfume round the fireside where the one man loves the 
one woman. 

—Some Mistakes of Moses. 




May 23. 



E are looking for the time when the useful 
shall be the honorable; when the true shall be 
the beautiful, and when Reason, throned upon 
the world’s brain, shall be the king of kings 


and god of gods. 


—The Gods. 


May 


2 A 



fied. 


HE brain must be developed. The world must 
think. Speech must be free. The world must 
learn that credulity is not a virtue and that no 
question is settled until reason is fully satis- 

—The Truth. 


EVENTS, like the pendulum of a clock, have swung 
forward and backward, but after all, man, like the hands, 
has gone steadily on. — Some Mistakes of Moses. 







































May 21. 


May 22. 


May 


23. 


May 2If. 










May 25. 



LASPHEMY is what an old mistake says of a 
newly discovered truth. Blasphemy is what 
a withered last year’s leaf says to a this year’s 
bnd. Blasphemy is the bulwark of religious 
prejudice. Blasphemy is the breastplate of the heart¬ 
less. 

—Argument in Blasphemy Case. 


May 26. 



N this world the skeptic appears to have the 
best of the argument; logic seems to be on 
the side of blasphemy; common sense ap¬ 
parently goes hand in hand with Infidelity, and 
the few things we are absolutely certain of seem incon¬ 
sistent with the Christian creeds. 

—Interviews. 


May 


I 



IYE me the storm and tempest of thought and 
action, rather than the dead calm of ignorance 
and faith! Banish me from Eden when you 
will; but first let me eat of the fruit of the 


tree of knowledge. 


—The Gods. 


May 28. 



LOWLY but surely man is freeing his imagina¬ 
tion of these sexless phantoms, of these cruel 
ghosts. He is learning to rely upon himself. 
He is beginning to find that labor is the only 
prayer that ought to be answered, and that hoping, toil¬ 
ing, aspiring, suffering men and women are of more im¬ 
portance than all the ghosts that ever wandered through 
the fenceless fields of space. _The Ghosts. 








































May 25. 


May 26. 


May 27. 


May 28. 










May 29. 



URELY it is sublime to think that the brain is 
a castle, and that within its curious bastions 
and winding halls the soul, in spite of all 
worlds and all beings, is the supreme sovereign 


of itself. 


—Individuality. 


May 30 .■ 



HIS day is sacred to our heroes dead. Upon 
their tombs we have lovingly laid the wealth 
of Spring. This is a day for memory and 
tears. A mighty nation bends above its hon¬ 
ored graves, and pays to noble dust the tribute of its 
love. 

—Decoration Day. 


May 31. 



saults himself. 


EAL victories can be won only for the Right. 
The triumph of justice is the only peace. Such is 
the nature of things. He who enslaves another 
cannot be free. He who attacks the right as- 


—Decoration Day. 




























May 29. 


May SO. 


May 31.* 
























































































































June 1. 


T is not necessary to be great to be happy ; it 
is not necessary to be rich to be just and gen¬ 
erous and to have a heart filled with divine 
affection. No matter whether you are rich or 
poor, treat your wife as though she were a splendid 
flower, and she will fill your life with perfume and with 
J°J* —Liberty of Man, Woman and Child. 



June 2. 


4 


/ 


F not a human being lived—if all were in their 
graves, the sun would continue to shine, the 
wheeling world would pursue its flight, violets 
would spread their velvet bosoms to the day, 
the spendthrift roses give their perfume to the air, the 
climbing vines would hide with leaf and flower the fallen 
and the dead. 

—Myth and Miracle. 


June 3. 


ET me tell you to-night that when the sword of 
justice is changed into a staff to support the 
weak, that staff bursts into blossom and the 
perfume of that flower is the only incense, the 
only offering, the only sacrifice that mercy will accept. 

—Which Way? 



June h- 



T is a great thing to preach philosophy—far 
greater to live it. The highest philosophy ac¬ 
cepts the inevitable with a smile and greets it 
as though it were desired. To be satisfied: 


This is wealth—success. 


-Tribute to Walt Whitman. 


ON every side are the benevolent and malicious—some¬ 
thing toiling to preserve, something laboring to destroy. 

—Superstition. 







































June 1. 


June 2. 


June 3. 


June If. 










*/une 5. 



ND yet we liope and dream. Maybe the long¬ 
ing for another life is but the prophecy, forever 
warm from Nature’s lips, that love, disguised 

as death, alone fulfills. 

—Tribute to Elizur Wright. 


June 6. 



UT this we know: good deeds are never child¬ 
less. A noble life is never lost. A virtuous 
action does not die. 

—Tribute to Elizur Wright. 


THE accumulated experience of the world is a power 
and force that works for righteousness. 

—What Is Religion? 


June 7. 



ORK is worship. Labor is the best prayer. 
He who loves worships. 

—What is Worship? 


THE destroyers have always been honored. The useful 
have always been despised. 

—Progress. 


June 8. 



IFE is a narrow vale between the cold and 
barren peaks of two eternities. We strive in vain 
to look beyond the heights. We cry aloud, and 
the only answer is the echo of our wailing cry. 
From the voiceless lips of the unreplying dead there 
comes no word, but in the night of death hope sees a 
star and listening love can hear the rustle of a wing. 

—Tribute to Ebon C. Ingersoll. 







































■i June 5. 


June 6. 


June 7. 


June 8. 










June 9. 



ND I had rather live and love where death is 
king, than have eternal life where love is not. 
Another life is nought unless we know and 
love again the ones who love us here. 


—At a Child’s Grave. 


June 10. 



S it a small thing to make men truly free—to 
destroy the dogmas of ignorance, prejudice and 
power—the poisoned fables of superstition, 
and drive from the beautiful face of the earth 


the fiend of Fear. 


—We Build. 


■June 11. 



HALL we not become charitable and just when 
we know that every act is but condition’s fruit; 
that Nature, with her countless hands, scatters 
the seeds of tears and crimes—of every virtue 
and of every joy; that all the base and vile are the 
victims of the blind, and that the good and great have, 
in the lottery of life, by chance or fate, drawn heart and 
brain ? Reformers. 


June 12. 



GREAT man adds to the sum of knowledge, ex¬ 
tends the horizon of thought, releases souls 
from the Bastile of fear, crosses unknown and 
myterious seas, gives new islands and conti¬ 
nents to the domain of thought, new constellations to the 
firmament of mind. _ Voltaire. 

TO teach the alphabet is to inaugurate revolution. 

—The Ghosts. 







































June 9. 


June 10. 


June 11. 


June 12. 










- June 13s 

GREAT man does not seek applause or place; 
he seeks for truth; he seeks the road to hap¬ 
piness, and what he ascertains he gives to 
others. — Voltaire. 

INDUSTRY objected to supporting idleness, and laws 
were made against theft. —Some Mistakes of Moses. 

- June I). 

HAT flag is the emblem of a supreme will—of 
a Nation’s power. Beneath its folds the weak¬ 
est must be protected and the strongest must 
obey. . . . That flag was given to the air in 
the Revolution’s darkest days. It represents the suffer¬ 
ings of the past, the glories yet to be ; and like the bow 
of heaven, it is the child of storm and sun. 

—Decoration Day. 

- June 15. - ■■■■■■■ 

ET us cultivate courage and cheerfulness—open 
our hearts to the good—our minds to the true. 
Let us live free lives. Let us hope that the 
future will bring peace and joy to all the chil¬ 
dren of men, and above all, let us preserve the veracity 
of our souls. 

—The Truth. 





June 16 .■ 


HEN men are prosperous they are in love with 
life. Nature grows beautiful, the arts begin to 
flourish, there is work for painter and sculptor, 
the poet is born, the stage is erected; and this 
life with which men are in love is represented in a thou¬ 
sand forms. —Shakespeare. 



EVERY wrong in some way tends to abolish itself. 

—The Ghosts. 







































June 13. 


June Ilf. 


June 15. 


June 16.< 










. June 11. - 

HE triumphs of science are our miracles. The 
books filled with the facts of Nature are our 
sacred scriptures, and the force that is in every 
atom and in every star—in every thing that 
grows and thinks, that hopes and suffers—is the only 
possible god. 

—The Truth. 



June IS. 



IMAGINATION like the atmosphere of Spring 
woos every seed of earth to seek the blue of 
heaven, and whispers of bud and flower and 
fruit. Imagination gathers from every field of 
thought and pours the wealth of many lives into the lap 
of one. 

- Argument in Blasphemy Case. 


June 19. 



OMPARED with Shakespeare’s “book and vol¬ 
ume of the brain,” the “sacred ” Bible shrinks 
and seems as feebly impotent and vain as 
would a pipe of Pan when some great organ, 
voiced with every tone, from the hoarse thunder of the 
sea to the winged warble of a mated bird, floods and fills 
cathedral aisles with all the wealth of sound. 

—Some Mistakes of Moses. 

1 — June 20. 1 1 



ONFRONTED with the universe, with fields of 
space sown thick with stars, and all there is 
of life, the wise man being asked the origin and 
destiny of all, replies : “I do not know. These 
questions are beyond the powers of my mind.” The 
wise man is thoughtful and modest. He clings to facts. 
Beyond his intellectual horizon he does not pretend to 
see * —The Foundations of Faith. 







































June 17. 


J une 18. 


June 19. 


June 20. 










- June 21. .— 

HE church has impeded, but it has not and it 
cannot stop the onward march of the human 
race. Heresy cannot be burned, nor impris¬ 
oned, nor starved. It laughs at presbyteries 
and synods, at ecumenical councils and the impotent 
thunders of Sinai. Heresy is the eternal dawn, the 
morning star, the glittering herald of the day. 

—Heretics and Heresies. 

— ■ 1 June 22. ■ — — 

REGARD the rights of men and women as 
equal. In Love’s fair realm husband and wife 
are king and queen, sceptered and crowned 
alike, and seated on the self-same throne. 

—Interviews. 




June 23. 



BELIEVE in allowing the children to think for 
themselves. I believe iu the democracy of the 
family. If in this world there is anything 
splendid, it is the home where all are equal. 


—Liberty of Man, Woman and Child. 


June 24 .- 



NTELLIGENCE is the only light. It enables 
us to keep the highway, to avoid the obstruc¬ 
tions, and to take advantage of the forces of 
nature. To develop the brain is to civilize the 
world. Intelligence reaves the heavens of winged and 
frightful monsters—drives ghosts and leering fiends from 
the darkness, and floods with light the dungeons of fear. 

—The Truth. 







































June 21. 


June 22. 


June 23. 


June 2If. 










- June 25. .. — 

HE phenomena of nature have been investi¬ 
gated and the supernatural has not been found. 
The myths have faded from the imagination, 
and of them nothing remains but the poetic. 
The miraculous has become the absurd, the impossible. 
Gods and phantoms have been banished from the earth 
and sky. We are living in a natural world. 

—Myth and Miracle. 

-- June 26. - 

NFLDELS are intellectual discoverers. They 
sail the unknown seas and find new isles and 
continents in the infinite realms of thought. 
An Infidel is one who has found a new fact, 
who has an idea of his own, and who in the mental sky 
has seen another star. 

—The Great Infidels. 




June 27. 



N the world of thought, each man is an absolute 
monarch, each brain is a kingdom that cannot 
be invaded even by the tyranny of majorities. 

—Interviews. 


AN error cannot be believed sincerely enough to make 
it a truth. — The Great Infidels. 


June 28 .. 



HE laugh of a child will make the holiest day 
more sacred still . . . O rippling river of 
laughter, thou art the blessed boundary line 
between the beasts and men; and every way¬ 
ward wave of thine doth drown some fretful fiend of care. 
O laughter, rose-lipped daughter of Joy, there are dimples 
enough in thy cheek to catch and hold and glorify all 
the tears of grief. -— Liberty of Man, Woman and Child. 







































June 25. 


June 26. 


June 27. 


J une 28. 










June 29. 



E have no falsehoods to defend— 

We want the facts ; 

Onr force, our thought, we do not spend 
In vain attacks. 

And we will never meanly try 
To save some fair and pleasing lie. 


—Declaration of the Free. 


June 30. 



HOEVER increases the sum of joy is a wor¬ 
shiper. He who adds to the sum of human 
misery is a blasphemer. 

—Argument in Blasphemy Case. 


ALL there is of leaf and bud, of flower and fruit, of 
painted insect life, and all the winged and happy chil¬ 
dren of the air that Summer holds beneath her dome of 
blue, were known and loved by him. 

—Tribute to H. W. Beecher. 


























June 29. 


June 30. 










«!» 




an i 




ait i 





LIBERTY, thou art the god of my idolatry! Thou 
art the only deity that hateth bended knees. In thy vast 
and unwalled temple, beneath the roofless dome, star- 
gemmed and luminous with suns, thy worshipers stand 
erect! They do not cringe or crawl, or bend their foreheads 
to the earth. The dust has never borne the impress of their 
lips. Upon thy altars mothers do not sacrifice their babes, nor 
men their rights. Thou askest nought from men except the 
things that good men hate—the whip, the chain, the dungeon 
key. Thou hast no popes nor priests who stand between their 
fellowmen and thee. Thou carest not for foolish forms or 
selfish prayers; at thy sacred shrine hypocrisy does not bow, 
virtue does not tremble, superstition’s feeble tapers do not burn, 
but Reason holds aloft her inextinguishable torch whose holy 
light will one day flood the world. 




* 


* 


w 




=1 


F? 



































































July 1. 



AKE the word Liberty from human speech and 
all the other words become poor, withered, 
meaningless sounds; but with this word un¬ 
derstood, the world becomes a paradise. 


—Argument in Blasphemy Case. 


July 2. 



HE church has been, and still is, the great 
robber. She has rifled not only the pockets 
but the brains of the world. She is the stone 
at the sepulchre of liberty; the upas-tree in 
whose shade the intellect of man has withered; the 
Gorgon beneath whose gaze the human heart has turned 
to stone. 

—Individuality. 


July 3. 



AIT until the world is free before you write a 
creed. In this creed there will be but one word 
—Liberty. O Liberty, float not forever in the 
far horizon—remain not forever in the dream 
of the enthusiast, the philanthropist and poet, but come 
and make thy home among the children of men ! 

—Liberty of Man, Woman and Child. 


July 


l 



LL who stand beneath our banner are free. 
Ours is the only flag that has in reality written 
upon it : Liberty, Fraternity, Equality—the 
three grandest words in all the languages of 


men. 


—Declaration of Independence. 


MEN are oaks, women are vines, children are flowers. 

—Liberty of Man, Woman and Child. 







































July 1 .< 


July 2. 


July 3. 


July If. 










July 5. 



HAT has been called religion is, after all, but 
the organization of the wild beast in man. 
The perfumed blossom of arrogance is heaven. 
Hell is the consummation of revenge. 


—The Ghosts. 


. July 6. 

iyil E will not williagly be fooled, 
wlj? fables nursed ; 

Our hearts by earnest thoughts are schooled 
To bear the worst. 

Aud we can stand erect and dare 
All things, all facts that really are. 

- July 7. - 

E who attempts to ridicule the truth ridicules 
himself. He becomes the food of his own 
laughter. 

—Voltaire. 

HERESY is the last and best thought. It is the per¬ 
petual New World, the unknown sea, toward which the 
brave all sail. It is the eternal horizon of progress. 

—Heretics and Heresies. 

— ■ July 8 .—- 

EMEMBER that everything of beauty tends to 
the elevation of man. Every little morning 
glory whose purple bosom is thrilled with the 
amorous kisses of the sun, tends to put a blos¬ 
som in your heart. Every flower about a house certifies 
to the refinement of somebody. Every vine climbing 
and blossoming tells of love and joy. 

—Farming in Illinois. 









































July 5. 


July 6. 


July 7 . 


July 8. 










July 9. 



OTHING can be more important to a human 
being than to be free and to live without fear. 
It is far better to be a mortal freeman than an 
immortal slave. 


—Voltaire. 


July 10. 



E have no God to serve or fear, 

No hell to shun; 

No devil with malicious leer, 

When life is done 

An endless sleep may close our eyes, 

A sleep with neither dreams nor sighs. 


—Declaration of the Free. 


- J uly 11. — 

ND then to rouse yourself to do all useful things, 
to reach with thought and deed the ideal in 
your brain, to give your fancies wing, that 
they, like chemist bees, may find art’s nectar 
in the weeds of common things, to look with trained 
and steady eyes for facts, ... to develop the brain, to 
defend the right, to make a palace for the soul. This is 
real religion. This is real worship. —Religion. 

V 

- July 12. - 

T is hurtful for people to imagine that they can 
please God by any ceremony whatever. If there 
is any God, there is only one way to please 
him, and that is by a conscientious discharge 
of your obligations to your fellowmen. — Interviews. 

INSPIRATION is in the man as well as in the book. 
God should have “ inspired ” readers as well as writers. 

—Inspiration. 









































July 9. 


July 10. 


J uly 11. 


July 12. 










July IS: 


E know that theology always has and always 
will make enemies. It sows the seed of hatred 
in families and nations. It is selfish, cruel, 
revengeful and malicious. It has heaven for the 
few and perdition for the many. 

—Myth and Miracle. 



July 1 j' f. 



KNOW not what . . . garments of glory may 
be woven by the years to come. I cannot dream 
of the victories to be won upon the fields of 
thought; but I do know that, coming from the 
infinite sea of the future, there will never touch this 
“bank and shoal of time ” a richer gift, a rarer blessing, 
than liberty for man, for woman, and for child. 

—Liberty of Man, Woman and Child. 

— July 15. - 



E should do justice whether a woman was made 
from a rib or from “ omnipotence.” We should 
be merciful whether the flood was general or 
local. We should be kind and obliging whether 


Jonah was swallowed by a fish or not. 


-Interviews. 


July 16. 



IBEKTY is the breath of progress ; it is the 
seed and soil, the heat and rain of love and 

j°7* 


THERE is no real investigation without freedom—free¬ 
dom from the fear of gods and men. So all investigation 
—all experiment—should be pursued in the light of 
reason. —The Truth. 







































July IS: 


July Ilf. 


July 15. 


July 16. 










- July 17. - 

F a man would follow, to-day, the teachings of 
the Old Testament, he would be a criminal. 
If he would follow strictly the teachings of the 
New, he would be insane. 

—Interviews. 

SOME people have more confidence in their beliefs than 
in their own arguments. 

—Miscellanies. 

■ July 18. ■ 

IBEKTY is the condition of progress. Without 
Liberty there remains only barbarism. With¬ 
out Liberty there can be no civilization . . . 
Without Liberty there can be no worship, no 
blasphemy—no love, no hatred, no justice, no progress. 

—Argument in Blasphemy Case. 




- July 19. ■ ■ 

NFIDELITY is not dying—it is growing—it is 
increasing every day. Aud what does that 
prove ? It proves that the people are learning 
more and more—that they are advancing—that 
the mind is getting free and that the race is being civ¬ 
ilized. The clergy know that I know that they know 
that they do not know. 

—Orthodoxy. 

--- July 20. 

CIENCE is the only civilizer. It has freed the 
slave, clothed the naked, fed the hungry, length¬ 
ened life, given us homes and hearths, pictures 
and books, ships and railways, telegraphs and 
cables, engines that tirelessly turn the countless wheels, 
and it has destroyed the monsters, the phantoms, the 
winged horrors that filled the savage brain. 

—Superstition. 









































July 17. 


July IS. 


July 19. 


July 20. 










■ —July 21. ■ . 

ND let me tell you that Hope of Immortality 
never came from any religion; that Hope of 
Immortality has helped make religions. It 
has been the great oak around which have 
climbed the poisonous vines of superstition—that Hope 
of Immortality is the great oak. 

— Unitarian Dinner. 

..■ ■■■■ ■ July 22. ' 

ELIEF is not a voluntary thing. A man be¬ 
lieves in spite of himself. They tell us that 
to believe is the safe way ; but I say the safe 
way is to be honest. Nothing can be safer 
than that. No man in the hour of death ever regretted 
having been honest. 

—Some Reasons Why. 




July 23. 



OTHING is greater, nothing is of more im¬ 
portance, than to find, amid the errors and 
darkness of this life, a shining truth. Truth 
is the intellectual wealth of the world. The 


noblest occupations is to search for truth. 


-The Truth. 


•July 2j. 



OU need not go back four thousand years for 
heroines. The world is filled with them to-day. 
They do not belong to any nation, nor to any 
religion, nor exclusively to any race. Wherever 
woman is found, they are found. _ Interviews. 

NO man can be honest enough to substantiate, to the 
satisfaction of reasonable men, the happening of a 
miracle. — North American Review. 








































July 21. 


July 22. 


July 23. 


•July 21f. 










July 26. 



UPERNATURAL religion will fade from this 
world, and in its place we shall have reason. 
In the place of the worship of something we 
know not of, will he the religion of mutual 
love and assistance—the great religion of reciprocity. 
Superstition must go. Science will remain. 

—Orthodoxy. 


July 26 .< 



CIENCE is the real redeemer. It will put 
honesty above hypocrisy; mental veracity above 
all belief. ... It will put thoughtful doubt 
above thoughtless faith. It will give us philoso¬ 
phers, thinkers, savants, instead of priests, theologians 
and saints. It will abolish poverty and crime; and, 
greater, grander, nobler than all else, it will make the 
whole world free. —Superstition. 

— - J lily 21.• 


F there is anything of value, it is liberty—lib¬ 
erty of body, liberty of mind. The liberty of 
body is the reward of labor. Intellectual 
liberty is the air of the soul, the sunshine of 
the mind, and without it, the world is a prison, the uni¬ 
verse a dungeon. 

—Some Reasons Why. 



July 28.' 



RUTH is the foundation, the superstructure, 
and the glittering dome of progress. Truth is 
the mother of joy. Truth civilizes, ennobles 
and purifies. The grandest ambition that can 


enter the soul is to know the truth. 


-The Truth. 


I HAVE never given to anyone a sketch of my life. 
According to my idea a life should not be written until 
it has been lived. — Miscellanies. 







































July 23 


July 26 


July 27. 


July 28. 












July 29. 



E have no master on the land— 

No king in air— 

Without a manacle we stand, 
Without a prayer, 

Without a fear of coming night; 

We seek the truth, we love the light. 


—Declaration of the Free. 


July 30. 



THINK that Sunday should not be a day of gloom, 
of silence and despair, or a day in which to 
hear that the chances are largely in favor of 
your being eternally damned. That day, in 


my opinion, should be one of joy. 


—Interviews. 


July 31. 



HE church still imagines that phenomena should 
be interpreted as the signs of the pleasure or 
displeasure of God. Nearly every history 
is deformed with this childish and barbaric 



Tiew. 


—Miscellanies. 










































July 29. 


July 30. 


July 31. 
















H E heard the rhythmic sounds of Nature’s busy strife, the 
hum of bees, the songs of birds, the eagle’s cry, the 
murmur of the stream, the sighs and lamentations of 
the winds, and all the voices of the sea. He loved the 
shores, the vales, the crags and cliffs, the city’s busy streets, the 
introspective, silent plain, the solemn splendors of the night, the 
silver sea of dawn, and evening’s clouds of molten gold. 





























































































































































- August !.• - 

M "— ■) HOEVER labors for tlie happiness of those he 
loves, elevates himself, no matter whether he 
works in the dark and dreary shops or in the 
perfumed fields. To work for others is, in 
reality, the only way in which a man can work for him¬ 
self. 

—Farming in Illinois. 


August 2 



VERY fact is an enemy of the church. Every 
fact is a heretic. Every demonstration is an 
Infidel. Everything that ever really happened 
testifies against the supernatural. 

—Orthodoxy. 


August 3. 



HEN cyclones rend—when lightning blights, 
’Tis naught but fate; 

There is no god of wrath who smites 
In heartless hate. 

Behind the things that injure man 
There is no purpose, thought, or plan. 


August Jf. 



LASPHEMY is the flag of theology, and it 
means: No argument and no quarter! It is 
an appeal to prejudice, to passions, to igno¬ 
rance. It is the last resort of a defeated 
priest. Blasphemy marks the point where argument 
stops and slander begins. In old times it was the signal 
for throwing stones, for gathering fagots and for tearing 
flesh ; now it means falsehood and calumny. — interviews. 







































August 1. 


August 


9 


August 3. 


August J/. 










August J. 



EASON is tlie light, the sun of the brain. It 
is the compass of the mind, the ever constant 
Northern Star, the mountain peak that lifts 
itself above all clouds. 


—Superstition. 


August 6/ 



HE church has preached the doctrine of non- 
resistance, and under that banner has shed the 
blood of millions. In the folds of her sacred 
vestments have gleamed for centuries the 
daggers of assassination. With her cunning hands she 
wove the purple for hypocrisy and placed the crown 
upon the brow of crime. 

—Some Reasons Why. 


August 


.'V 

l. 



RUTH gives man the greatest power for good. 
Truth is sword and shield. It is the sacred 
light of the soul. The man who finds a truth 
lights a torch. 

—The Truth. 


August 8. 



SMILE is the dawn of a doubt. Let us respect 
the truth, let us laugh at miracles, and above 
all let us be candid with each other. 

—Interviews. 


FOR more than a thousand years larceny held the scales 
of justice, hypocrisy wore the mitre and tiara, while 
beggars scorned the royal sons of toil, and ignorant fear 
denounced the liberty of thought. —Some Reasons Why. 







































August 5. 


August 6. 


August 7. 


August 8. 










August 9. 



OOD deeds bear fruit, and in the fruit are seeds 
that in their turn bear fruit and seeds. Great 
thoughts are never lost, and words of kindness 

do not perish from the earth. 

—How to Reform Mankind. 


August 10. 



O throw away your reason at the command of 
churches, popes, parties, kings or gods, is to 
be a serf, a slave. 

—Interviews. 


OYER the desert of death the spliiux gazes forever, but 
never speaks. 


August 11.' 



HIS brave and tender man in every storm of 
life was oak and rock; but in sunshine he was 
and flower. . . . He climbed the heights, 


vine 


and left all superstitions far below, while on his 
forehead fell the golden dawning of the grander day. 
He loved the beautiful, and was with color, form, and 
music touched to tears. He sided with the weak, the 
poor, and wronged, and lovingly gave alms. 


August 1 


) 


RESBYTERIANISM never made a human being 
better. If there is anything that will freeze 
the generous current of the soul, it is Calvin¬ 
ism. If there is any creed that will destroy 
charity, that will keep the tears of pity from llie cheeks 
of men and women, it is Presbyterianism. _Interviews. 



ANNIHILATION and creation are both impossible— 
unthinkable. A grain of sand can defy all the gods. 








































August 9. 


August 10. 


August 11 


August 12. 











An (just 13. 



HE foundation of superstition is ignorance, the 
superstructure is faith, and the dome is a vain 
hope. Superstition is the child of ignorance 
and the mother of misery. 

—Superstition. 


August 1£. 



YERY human being should be allowed to in¬ 
vestigate to the extent of his desire—his 
ability. The literature of the world should be 
open to him—nothing prohibited, sealed or 
hidden. No subject can be too sacred to be understood. 
Each person should be allowed to reach his own con¬ 
clusions and to speak his honest thought. 

—The Truth. 

- August 15. • * 



YERl r child should be taught that the useful 
are the honorable and that they who live on 
the labor of others are the enemies of society. 
Every child should be taught that useful work 
is worship and that intelligent labor is the highest form 
of prayer. 

—How to Reform Mankind. 


August 16. 



vanced. 


UST to the extent that man has depended upon 
the other world he has failed to make the best 
of this. Just in the proportion that he has 
depended upon his own efforts, he has ad- 

—Interviews. 


THERE is no office I want in this world. I will make 
up my mind as to the next when I get there, because 
my motto is : One world at a time. — Miscellanies. 







































August 13. 


August lJf. 


August 15. 


August 16. 










'Au (just 11. 



HEN man lias been helped, man lias done it; 
when the chains of slavery have been broken, 
they have been broken by man; when some¬ 
thing bad has been done in the government of 
mankind, it is easy to trace it to man, and to fix the re¬ 
sponsibility upon human beings. You need not look 
to the sky; you need throw neither praise nor blame 
upon gods. —Orthodoxy. 

— August 18. 



BELIEVE in the religion of humanity. It is 
far better to love our fellowmen than to love 
God. We can help them. We cannot help 
him. We had better do what we can than to 


be always pretending to do what we cannot. 


-Orthodoxy. 


- August If). — 

LL the orthodox churches are obstructions on 
the highway of progress. Every orthodox 
creed is a chain, a dungeon. Every believer 
in the “inspired book” is a slave who drives 
reason from her throne, and in her stead crowns fear. 

—Superstition. 



August 20.- 



T is far better that we should all go down “ with 
souls unsatisfied ” to the dreamless grave, to 
the tongueless silence of the voiceless dust, 
than that countless millions of human souls 
should suffer forever. Eternal sleep is better than 
eternal pain. Eternal punishment is eternal revenge, 
and can be inflicted only by an eternal monster. 

—The Great Controversy. 








































Any ust 17. 


Anyust IS. 


Auyust ID. 


Auyust 


20 . 










August 21. 


F I have a creator, I can only honor him by 
being true to myself, and kind and just to my 
fellowmen. If I wish to shed lustre upon my 
father and mother, I can only do so by being 
absolutely true to myself. Never will I lay the wreath 
of hypocrisy upon the tombs of those I love. 

—Interviews. 

August 22. - 

UR life is joyous, jocund, free— 

Not one a slave 

Who bends in fear the trembling knee, 

And seeks to save 
A coward soul from future pain; 

Not one will cringe or crawl for gain. 

—Declaration of the Free. 

■ 1 ■ August 23. 





E who threatens the investigator with punish¬ 
ment, here or hereafter, is an enemy of the human 
race. And he who tries to bribe tlie investi¬ 
gator with the promise of eternal joy is a 


traitor to his fellowmen. 


—The Truth. 


August 21f. 


___ < 

OTHING can be more marvelous than the com¬ 
mon and every day facts of life. The phan¬ 
toms have been cast aside. Men and women 
are enough for men and women. In their lives 
is all the tragedy and all the comedy that they can com¬ 
prehend. —Tribute to Walt Whitman. 



VIRTUE is of no color; kindness, justice and love, of 
no complexion. —Orthodoxy. 








































August 21. 


August 22. 


August 23. 


August 2If. 










August 2o.‘ 



ACRED are the lips from which has issued 
only truth. Over all wealth, above all station, 
above the noble, the robed and crowned, rises 
the sincere man. Happy is the man who 
neither paints nor patches, veils nor veneers! Blessed 
is he who wears no mask. 

—Tribute to Horace Seaver. 


August 26 .■ 



VERY brain is a field where nature sows the 
seeds of thought and the crop depends upon 
the soil. 

—How to Reform Mankind. 

EVERY science rests on the natural, on demonstrated 
facts. So morality and religion must find their founda¬ 
tion in the necessary nature of things. 

—How to Reform Mankind. 




August 


27 ■ 



VERY man should be true to himself—true to 
the inward light. Each man in the laboratory 
of his own mind, and for himself alone, should 
test the so-called facts—the theories of all the 
world. Truth, in accordance with his reason, should be 
his guide and master. To love the truth, thus perceived, 
is mental virtue—intellectual purity. This is true man¬ 
hood. This is freedom. — The Truth. 


August 28.' 



O away with human love, and what are we ? 
What would we be in another world, and what 
would we be here? Can anyone conceive of 
music without human love ? Of art or joy ? 
Human love builds every home. Human love is the 
author of all beauty. Love paints every picture and 
chisels every statue. Love builds every fireside. What 
would heaven be without human love ? 







































August 25. 


August 26. 


August 27. 


August 28. 










- August 29. -- 

HE theologians made the Bible a master and 
the people its slaves. With this book they 
destroyed intellectual veracity, the natural 
manliness of man. With this book they ban¬ 
ished pity from the heart, subverted all ideas of justice 
and fairness, imprisoned the soul in the dungeon of fear, 
and made honest doubt a crime. 

—Superstition. 

-—- August 30. -- 

PECULATORS cannot make unless somebody 
loses. In the realm of speculation, every suc¬ 
cess has at least one victim. The harvest 
reaped by the farmer benefits all and injures 
none. For him to succeed it is not necessary that some 
one should fail. The same is true of all producers—of 
all laborers. 

—Farming in Illinois. 

- August 31 .--- 

OR my part I would rather hear Beethoven’s 
Sixth Symphony than to read the five books 
of Moses. Give me the Sixth Symphony—a 
sound-wrought picture of the fields and woods, 
of flowering hedge, and happy homes, where thrushes 
build and swallows fly, and mothers sing to babes, an 
echo of the babbling lullaby of brooks that dallying 
wind and flow where meadows bare their daisied bosoms 
to the sun, the joyous mimicry of summer rain—the 
laugh of children and the rhythmic rustle of the whis¬ 
pering leaves, the strophe of peasant life—a perfect 
poem of content and love. 





—Myth and Miracle. 






























August 29. 


August 30. 


August 31. 
































































T HE picture of a cottage, over which runs a vine, a little 
home thatched with content, with its simple life, its 
natural sunshine and shadow, its trees bending with 
fruit, its hollyhocks and pinks, its happy children, its 
hum of bees, i a poem—a smile in the desert of this world. 




W} 

















































September 7. 


AN should think; he should use all his senses; 
he should examine; he should reason. The 
man who cannot think is less than man; the 
man who will not think is traitor to himself; 
the man who fears to think is superstition’s slave. 

—Superstition. 



September 2r 



E believe in the natural, in the unbroken suc¬ 
cession of causes and effects. We deny the 
existence of the supernatural. We do not be¬ 
lieve in any God who can be pleased with 


incense, with kneeling, with bell-ringing, psalm-singing, 
bead-counting, fasting or prayer—in any God who can 
be flattered by words of faith or fear. 

—Miscellanies. 


September 3.' 



T is not simply the right, but it is the duty of 
every man to think—to investigate for himself 
—and every man who tries to prevent this by 
force or fear, is doing all he can to degrade 


and enslave his fellowmen. 


—The Truth. 


September 



HAT can I be expected to give as a substitute 
for perdition ? It is enough to show that it 
does not exist. What does a man want in 
place of a disease ? Health. And what is 
better calculated to increase the happiness of mankind 
than to know that the doctrine of eternal pain is in¬ 
finitely and absurdly false ? 


—Interviews. 








































September 1. 


September 2. 


September 3. 


September Jf. 










- September J.«— ■■ 1 1 

E are all hoping for a day of universal justice— 
a day of universal freedom—when man shall 
control himself, when the passions shall become 
obedient to the intelligent will. But the com¬ 
ing of that day will not be hastened by preaching the 
doctrines of total depravity and eternal revenge. That 
sun will not rise the quicker for preaching salvation by 
faith. — Orthodoxy. 

- September 6 .- 

F the devil does not exist the Christian creeds 
all crumble, and the superstructure known as 
“ Christianity,” built by the fathers, by popes, 
by priests and theologians—built with mis¬ 
takes and falsehoods, with miracles and wonders, with 
blood and flame, with lies and legends borrowed from 
the savage world, becomes a shapeless ruin. 

—Superstition. 

- September 7. — ■ — ■ 

E ask, yet nothing seems to know; 

We cry in vain. 

There is no 4£ master of the show ” 

Who will explain 
Or from the future tear the mask; 

And yet we dream and still we ask. 

—Declaration of the Free. 

- September 8. -* 





E who teaches a child the alphabet sows the 
seed of heresy. I have lived to see the school 
house in many village larger than the church. 
Every man who finds a fact is the enemy of 
theology. Every man who expresses an honest thought 
is a soldier in the army of intellectual liberty. 



—Interviews. 







































September 5: 


September 6. 


September 7 . 


September 8. 










September 9. 



DUCATION is the most radical thing in the 
world. To teach the alphabet is to inaugurate 
revolution. To build a schoolliouse is to con¬ 
struct a fort. Every library is an arsenal filled 
with the weapons and ammunition of progress, and every 
fact is a monitor with sides of iron and a turret of steel. 

—The Ghosts. 


September 10. 


HILDREN should be taught to think, to in¬ 
vestigate, to rely upon the light of reason, of 
observation and experience; should be taught 
to use all their senses; and they should be 
taught only that which in some sense is really useful. 

—How to Reform Mankind. 



September 11. 



AKE theology from the world, and natural love 
remains. Science is still here, Music will not 
be lost, the page of History will still be open, 
the walls of the world will still be adorned with 


Art, and the niches rich with Sculpture. 


-Interviews. 


September 12. 



HILDREN should be taught the importance, 
not only of financial, but of mental honesty; 
to be absolutely sincere; to utter their real 
thoughts, and to give their actual opinions; 
and if parents want honest children, they should be 
honest themselves. It may be that hypocrites transmit 
that failing to their offspring. 


—How to Reform Mankind. 







































September 9 . 


September 


10 . 


September 11. 


September 12. 










September 13. 



S there beyond the silent night 
An endless day ? 

Is death a door that leads to light ? 
We cannot say. 

The tongueless secret locked in fate 
We do not know. We hope and wait! 


Declaration of the Free. 


■ 1 September 1).\. 

ISTORY added another name to the starry 
scroll of the immortals. The world is his 
monument; upon the eternal granite of her 
hills he inscribed his name, and there upon 
everlasting stone his genius wrote this, the sublimest of 
truths : “ The universe is governed by law.” 

—Humboldt. 



September 15. 



UPERSTITION is, always has been, and forever 
will be the enemy of education and the assassin 
of freedom. It sacrifices the known to the 
unknown, the present to the future, this actual 
world to the shadowy next. It has given us a selfish 
heaven, and a hell of infinite revenge; it has filled the 
world with hatred, war and crime, with the malice of 
meekness and the arrogance of humility. —Superstition. 


September 16. 


AKE theology from the world and the churches 
can be schools and the cathedrals universities. 
Take theology away from the world, and the 
money wasted on superstition will do away 
with want. — Interviews. 



THE star that shines above that dawn, the herald of 
that day, is Science, not superstition; Reason, not re¬ 
ligion. — Orthodoxy. 







































September 13. 


September Ilf. 


September 15. 


September 16. 










- September 17. <■ ■ ■ — ■ ■ 

EAL education is the hope of the future. The 
development of the brain, the civilization of 
the heart, will drive want and crime from the 
world. The schoolhouse is the real cathedral, 
and science the only possible savior of the human race. 
Education, real education, is the friend of honesty, of 
morality, of temperance. 

—How to Reform Mankind. 

- September IS. 

HRISTIANITY did not come with tidings of 
great joy, but with a message of eternal grief. 
It came with the threat of everlasting torture 
on its lips. It meant war on earth and perdi¬ 
tion hereafter. ... It has filled the future with fear 
and flame, and made God the keeper of an eternal peni¬ 
tentiary, destined to be the home of nearly all the sons 
of men. — Christmas Sermon. 

■ September 19. ■ ■ ■■ ■> 





OTHING but falsehood needs the assistance of 
fame and place, of robes and mitres, of tiaras 
and crowns. The wise, the really honest and 
intelligent, are not swayed or governed by num¬ 


bers, by majorities. 


-The Truth. 


September 20. 



VERY man who has taught his fellow man to 
think, has been a benefactor. Every one who 
has supplied his fellowmen with facts and in¬ 
sisted upon their right to think, has been a 


blessing to his kind. 


—Interviews. 


CONSCIENCE is born of suffering. Mercy is the child 
of the imagination. 







































September 17. 


September 18. 


September 19. 


September 20. 










September 21. 



AN should examine all questions presented to 
his mind, without prej udice—unbiased by hatred 
or love—by desire or fear. His object, and his 
only object, should be to find the truth. He 
knows, if he listens to reason, that truth is not dangerous 
and that error is. 

—The Truth. 


- —- September 22. • ■ ■■ ■ — . . — 

BELIEVE in the religion of the family. I be¬ 
lieve that the roof-tree is sacred, from the 
smallest fibre held in the soft moist clasp of 
the earth to the smallest blossom on the top¬ 
most bough that gives its fragrance to the bonny air. 
The family where virtue dwells with love is like a lily 
with a heart of fire—the fairest flower in all the world. 

—Orthodoxy. 

■ ■ ■September 23. . 

O every one except a theologian it is easy to 
account for these mistakes and crimes by saying 
that civilization is a painful growth; that the 
moral perceptions are cultivated through ages 
of tyranny, of crime, and of heroism ; that it requires 
centuries for man to put out the eyes of self and hold in 
lofty and in equal poise the golden scales of justice. 

—Some Reasons Why. 

■ 1 ■ " Scptern 1) er 21/ 

NFIDELITY does not fear contradiction. It 
is not afraid of being laughed at. It invites 
the scrutiny of all doubters, of all unbelievers. 
It does not rely upon awe, but upon reason. 
It says to the world: It is dangerous not to think. It 
is dangerous not to be honest. It is dangerous not to 
investigate. It is dangerous not to follow where your 
reason leads. — Interviews. 










































September 21. 


September 22. 


September 23. 


•September 2If. 










September 25 


S often as we can exchange a mistake for a fact, 
a falsehood for a truth, we advance. We add to 
the intellectual wealth of the world, and in this 
way, and in this alone, can be laid the founda¬ 
tion for the future prosperity and civilization of the race. 

—How to Reform Mankind. 

- September 26. -— 

AN should weigh the evidence, the argum mts, 
in honest scales that passion or interest cannot 
change. He should care nothing for authority 
—nothing for names, customs or creeds—noth¬ 
ing for anything that his reason does not say is true. 

—The Truth. 





-- September 27. . - - 

NTELLIGENCE must be the savior of this 
world. Humanity is the grand religion, and 
no god can put a man in hell in another world 
who has made a little heaven in this. God 
cannot make a man miserable if that man has made some¬ 
body else happy. God cannot hate anybody who is 
capable of loving anybody. Humanity—that word em¬ 
braces all there is. —What Must We Do to Be Saved? 


September 28.' 



E waste no time in useless dread, 

In trembling fear; 

The present lives, the past is dead, 

And we are here, 

All welcome guests at life’s great feast— 

We need no help from ghost or priest. 

—Declaration of the Free. 







































September 26. 


September 27. 


September 28. 










September 29. 


* 



ITH knowledge obedience becomes intelligent 
acquiescence—it is no longer degrading. Ac¬ 
quiescence in the understood—in the known— 
is the act of a sovereign, not of a slave. It en¬ 


nobles, it does not degrade. 


-The Ghosts. 


- - ■September 30. - 

N YOUTH the time is halting slow and lame, 
In age the time is winged and eager as a flame. 
The sea seems narrow as we near the farther 
shore. 

Youth goes hand in hand with hope—old age with fear. 
Youth has a wish—old age a dread. 

In youth the leaves and buds seem loath to grow. 

Youth shakes the glass to speed the lingering sands. 
Youth says to Time: O crutched and limping laggard, 
get thee wings. 

The dawn comes slowly, but the westering day leaps 
like a lover to the dusky bosom of the Ethiop night. 

—Fragments. 

































September 29. 


September 30. 















® rtoita 



MlT/. 

fi 


■r/i 




Vi 




H E loved the mellow Autumn fields, the golden stacks, the 
happy homes of men, the orchards’ bending boughs, 
the sumach’s flags of flame, the maples with transfigured 
leaves, the tender yellow of the beech, the wondrous p 
harmonies of brown and gold—the vines where hang the 
clustered spheres of wit and mirth. 































































































- October /.--- 

HE progress of the world depends upon the 
men who walk in the fresh furrows and through 
the rustling corn; upon those who sow and 
reap; upon those whose faces are radiant with 
the glare of furnace fires ; upon the delvers in the mines, 
and the workers in shops; upon those who give to the 
winter air the ringing music of the axe. 

—The Ghosts. 

- October 2. --- 

HEOLOGY is, always has been, and always 
will be, ignorant, arrogant, puerile and cruel. 
When the church had power, hypocrisy was 
crowned and honesty imprisoned. Fraud wore 
the tiara and truth was a convict. Liberty was in 
chains. Theology has always sent the worst to heaven, 
the best to hell. 

—Myth and Miracle. 

- October 3. - 





OVE’S sacred flame within the heart 
And friendship’s glow; 

While all the miracles of art 
■ Their wealth bestow 
Upon the thrilled and joyous brain 
And present raptures banish pain. 


—Declaration of the Free. 


October Jf. 



OTHING should be taught in any school that 
the teacher does not know. Beliefs, supersti¬ 
tions, theories, should not be treated like dem¬ 
onstrated facts. The child should be taught 
to investigate, not to believe. Too much doubt is better 
than too much credulity. So, children should be taught 
that it is their duty to think for themselves, to under¬ 
stand, and, if possible, to know. — How to Reform Mankind. 









































October 1. 


October 2. 


October 3. 


October J/. 










October 



HE real searcher after truth will not receive the 
old because it is old, or reject the new because 
it is new. He will not believe men because 
they are dead, or contradict them because they 
are alive. With him an utterance is worth the truth, 
the reason it contains, without the slightest regard to 
the author. 

—The Truth. 


October 6. 



E love no phantoms of the skies, 

But living flesh, 

With passion’s soft and soulful eyes, 

Lips warm and fresh, 

And cheeks with health’s red flag unfurled, 
The breathing angels of this world. 


—Declaration of the Free. 


- October 7.. 

LL that tends to develop the bodies and minds 
of men; all that gives us better houses, better 
clothes, better food, better pictures, grander 
music, better heads, better hearts; all that 
renders us more intellectual and more loving, nearer 
just; that makes us better husbands and wives, better 
children, better citizens—all these things combined pro¬ 
duce what I call Progress. _ The Ghosts. 

-- October 8. - 




LL the advance that has been made in the re¬ 
ligious world has been made by “infidels,” by 
“heretics,” by “skeptics,” by doubters—that 
is to say, by thoughtful men. The doubt does 
not come from the ignorant members of your congrega¬ 
tions. Heresy is not born of stupidity—it is not the 
child of the brainless. 


—Interviews. 







































October 5 


October 6 . 


October 7. 


October 8. 











October 9. 



GREAT man throws pearls before swine, and 
the swine are sometimes changed to men. If 
the great had always kept their pearls, vast 
multitudes would be barbarians now. 


—Voltaire. 


- October 10. - 

UT on the intellectual sea there is room for 
every sail. In the intellectual air there is 
space enough for every wing. The man who 
does not do his own thinking is a slave, and is 
a traitor to himself and to his fellowmen. Every man 
should stand under the blue and stars, under the infinite 
flag of nature, the peer of every other man. 

—Liberty of Man, Woman and Child. 

-- ■ October 11. - 




EAUTY is not all there is of poetry. It must 
contain the truth. It is not simply an oak, 
rude and grand, neither is it simply a vine. It 
is both. Around the oak of truth runs the 


vine of beauty. 


—Tribute to Walt Whitman. 


October 12. 



ET us become investigators, not followers, not 
cringers and crawlers. If there is in heaven 
an infinite being, he will never be satisfied 
with the worship of cowards and hypocrites. 
Honest unbelief, honest Infidelity, honest Atheism will 
be a perfume in heaven when pious hypocrisy, no matter 
how religious it may be outwardly, will be a stench. 

—Liberty of Man, Woman and Child. 








































October 9. 


October 10. 


October 11. 


October 12. 










— October 13. - - 

AMINE and faitli go together. In disaster and 
want the gaze of man is fixed upon another 
world. He that eats a crust has a creed. 
Hunger falls upon its knees, and heaven, looked 
for through tears, is the mirage of misery. But pros¬ 
perity brings joy and wealth and leisure—and the beau¬ 
tiful is born. 

—On Shakespeare. 

- October 11/. 




HEBE is one good—Happiness. There is but 
one sin—selfishness. All law should be for 
the preservation of the one and the destruction 
of the other. 


—The Ghosts. 


October 15. 



HE jeweled cup of love we drain, 
And friendship’s wine 
Now swiftly flows in every vein 
With warmth divine. 


And so we love and hope and dream 
That in death’s sky there is a gleam. 


—Declaration of the Free. 


October 16. 



HEN the will defies fear, when the heart ap¬ 
plauds the brain, when duty throws the gauntlet 
down to fate, when honor scorns to compromise 
with death—this is heroism. 


—Decoration Day. 


SUPEBSTITION is the only enemy of science in all the 
world. 







































October 13. 


October Ilf. 


October 15. 


October 16. 










- October 17. - 

HE nude in art lias rendered holy tlie beauty of 
woman. Every Greek statue pleads for mothers 
and sisters. From these marbles come strains 
of music. They have filled the heart of man 
with tenderness and worship. 

—Art and Morality. 



October 18. 



OU need not fear the anger of a god that you 
cannot injure. Rather fear to injure your fellow- 
men. Do not be afraid of a crime you cannot 
commit. Rather be afraid of the one that you 


may commit. 


-What Must We Do to Be Saved? 


October 19. 



AN is greater than these phantoms. Humanity 
is grander than all the creeds, than all the 
books. Humanity is the great sea, and these 
creeds and books, and religions, are but the 
waves of a day. Humanity is the sky, and these re¬ 
ligions and dogmas and theories are but the mists and 
clouds changing continually, destined finally to melt 
away. —The Ghosts. 

- October 20. - 



BELIEVE in the gospel of good clothes : I 
believe in the gospel of good houses, in the 
gospel of water and soap. I believe in the 
gospel of intelligence ; in the gospel of educa¬ 
tion. The sclioolhouse is my cathedral. The universe 
is my bible. I believe in that gospel of justice that we 
must reap what we sow. 


—What Must We Do to Be Saved? 








































October 17. 


October 18. 


October 19. 


October 20. 










October 21. 



HE great men are the heroes who have freed 
the bodies of men; they are the philosophers 
and thinkers who have given liberty to the 
soul; they are the poets who have transfigured 
the common and filled the lives of many millions with 
love and song. 

—Voltaire. 


- October 22. - - — - 

E has uttered more supreme words than any 
writer of our century, possibly of almost any 
other. He was above all things a man; and 
above genius, above all the snowcapped peaks 
of intelligence, above all art, rises the true man. 

—Tribute to Walt Whitman. 

-- October 23. - — 

ND I believe, too, in the gospel of liberty, in 
giving to others what we claim for ourselves. 
I believe there is room everywhere for thought, 
and the more liberty you give away, the more 
you will have. In liberty extravagance is economy. Let 
us be just. Let us be generous to each other. 

—What Must We Do to Be Saved? 

- October 21f. - 

HE time must come when churches and cathe^ 
drals will be dedicated to the use of man; 
when minister and priest will deem the discov¬ 
eries of the living of more importance than the 
errors of the dead; when the truths of Nature will out¬ 
rank the “ sacred ” falsehoods of the past, and when a 
single fact will outweigh all the miracles of Holy Writ. 

—Some Mistakes of Moses. 










































October 21. 


October 22. 


October 23. 


October 21/. 










October 25. 



UPERSTITION is a beggar—a robber, a tyrant. 
Science is a benefactor. 

Snperstion sheds blood. 

Science sheds light. 


—The Truth. 


October 26. 



HE first doubt was the womb and cradle of 
progress, and from the first doubt, man has 
continued to advance. Men began to investi¬ 
gate, and the church began to oppose. The 
astronomer scanned the heavens, while the church 
branded his grand forehead with the word “infidel”; 
and now not a glittering star in all the vast expanse 
bears a Christian name. — The Gods. 


October 27 .- 



HE time will come when the world will be anx¬ 
ious to ascertain the truth, to find out the 
conditions of happiness, and to live in accord¬ 
ance with such conditions; and the time will 
come when, in the brain of every human being, will be 
the climate of intellectual hospitality. 

—How to Reform Mankind. 


October 28. 


HERE is no authority in churches or priests— 
no authority in numbers or majorities. The 
only authority is Nature—the facts we know. 
Facts are the masters, the enemies of the ig¬ 
norant, the servants and friends of the intelligent. 

—The Truth. 



HAPPINESS is the only possible good, and all that 
tends to the happiness is right, and is of value. 







































October 23. 


October 26. 


October 27. 


October 28. 










October 29. 


GKEAT man is a torch in the darkness, a 
beacon in superstition’s night, an inspiration 
and a prophecy. The place dees not make the 
man, nor the sceptre the king. Greatness is 
from within. 



—Voltaire. 


October 30. 


ELIGION was the lullaby of the cradle, the 
ghost story told by the old woman Supersti¬ 
tion. Science is the man. Science asks for 
demonstration. Science impels us to investi¬ 
gation, and to verify everything for ourselves. 

—Interviews. 



October 31. 



HE arguments used to-day against what they 
are pleased to call infidelity would have shut 
the mouth of every religious reformer from 
Christ to the founder of the last sect. The 
general objection to the new is, that it differs somewhat 
from the old, and the fact that it does differ is urged as 
an argument against its truth. 

—Appeal to the Cemetery. 






























October 20. 


October 30. 


October 


31. 












A UTUMN with the laden boughs, when the withered 
banners of the corn are still, and gathered fields are 
growing strangely wan; while death, poetic death, with 
hands that color what they touch, weaves in the 
Autumn wood her tapestry of gold and brown. 


3E3I 






























































- November 1. - 

HE maples are clad in tender gold, and little 
scarlet runners are coming, like poems of 
regret, from the sad heart of the earth. 

—Liberty of Man, Woman and Child. 

A BELIEVER is a bird in a cage, a Freethinker is an 
eagle parting the clouds with tireless wing. 

—Individuality. 

-- November 2. 

N the republic of mind, one is a majority. There 
all are monarchs, and all are equals. The 
tyranny of a majority even is unknown. Each 
one is crowned, sceptred and throned. Upon 
every brow is the tiara, and around every form is the 
imperial purple. Only those are good citizens who ex¬ 
press their honest thought, and those who persecute for 
opinion’s sake are the only traitors. — The Ghosts. 

- November 3. - 

OVE and virtue are the same the whole world 
round, and Justice is the same in every star. 

—Some Mistakes of Moses. 


REFORMATION is a hospital where the new philosophy 
exhausts its strength nursing the old religion. 

—Auguste Comte. 





November Jj. 



HE volume of Nature should be open to all. 
None but the intelligent and honest can 
read this book. Prejudice clouds and darkens 
every page. Hypocrisy reads and misquotes, 
and credulity accepts the quotation. Superstition can¬ 
not read a line or spell a word. And yet this volume 
holds all knowledge—all truth, and is the only source of 
thought. —The Truth. 







































November 1. 


November 2 


November 3. 










November 6. 



HE inventor of pins did a thousand times more 
good than all the popes and cardinals, the 
bishops and priests—than all the clergymen 
and parsons, exliorters and theologians that 


ever lived. 


-A Thanksgiving Sermon. 


- Novem her f>. - 

LL the known truths of this world—all the 
philosophy, all the poems, all the pictures, all 
the statues, all the entrancing music—the 
prattle of babes, the lullaby of mothers, the 
words of honest men, the trumpet calls to duty—all 
these make up the bible of the world—evertliing that is 
noble and true and free, you will find in this great book. 

—Argument in Trial for Blasphemy. 

--- November 7.- 

HE religion that has to be supported by law 
is without value not only, but a fraud and a 
curse. The religious argument that has to be 
supported by a musket, is hardly worth making. 
A prayer that must have a cannon behind it, better never 
be uttered. Forgiveness ought not to go in partnership 

with shot and shell. Love need not carry knives and 

*/ 

revolvers. — Declaration of Independence. 

- November 8. - 

N the great struggle between the supernatural 
and the natural, between gods and men, we have 
passed midnight. All the forces of civilization, 
all the facts that have been found, all the 
truths that have been discovered are the allies of science 
—the enemies of the supernatural. AVe need no myths, 
no miracles, no gods, no devils. 





—Myth and Miracle. 








































November 5. 


November 6. 


November 7 


November 8. 










November 9.- 



VERY fact lias pushed a superstition from the 
brain and a ghost from the clouds. Every me¬ 
chanic art is an educator. Every loom, every 
reaper and mower, every steamboat, every loco¬ 
motive, every engine, every press, every telegraph is a 
missionary of Science and an apostle of Progress. 

—The Ghosts. 


November 10 .« 



O one should attempt to refute an argument by 
pronouncing the name of some man, unless he 
is willing to adopt all the ideas and beliefs of 
that man. It is better to give reasons and facts 
than names. An argument should not depend for its force 
upon the name of its author. Facts need no pedigree; 
logic has no heraldry and the living should not be awed 
by the mistakes of the dead. — Appeal to the Cemetery. 


November 11.' 



E do not bow before a guess, 

A vague unknown; 

A senseless force we do not bless 
In solemn tone. 

When evil comes we do not curse, 
Or thank because it is no worse. 


—Declaration of the Free. 


November 12. 


YER the grave bends Love sobbing, and by her 
side stands Hope and whispers: We shall 
meet again. Before all life is death, and after 
all death is life. The falling leaf touched with 
the hectic flush, that testifies of autumn’s death, is in a 
subtler sense a prophecy of Spring. 

—Tribute to Walt Whitman. 









































'November 9. 


November 10. 


November 11. 


November 12. 










November 13. 



VERY creed is a rock in running water; hu¬ 
manity sweeps by it. Every creed cries to the 
universe, “ Halt! ” A creed is the ignorant 
past bullying the enlightened present. 

—Thomas Paine. 


November Ilf. 



doubt. 


ELIEF is, and forever must be, the result of 
evidence. A promised reward is not evidence. 
It sheds no intellectual light. It establishes 
no fact, answers no objection, and dissipates no 
Is it honest to offer a reward for belief ? 


—The Truth. 


November 13. 



truth. 


ITH the idea that labor is the basis of progress 
goes the truth that labor must be free. The 
laborer must be a free man. Free labor will 
give us wealth. Free thought will give us 


—The Ghosts. 


November 16. 



HE meanest hut with love in it is a palace fit 
for the gods, and a palace without love is a den 
only fit for wild beasts. That is my doctrine ! 
You cannot be so poor that you cannot help 
somebody. Good nature is the cheapest commodity in 
the world; and love is the only thing that will pay ten 
per cent, to borrower and lender both. 

—Liberty of Man, Woman and Child. 







































.'November 13. 


November Ilf. 


November 13. 


November 16. 










November /?'.■ 



MONG the most ignorant nations yon will find 
the most wonders; among the most enlightened 
the least. Ignorance believes, intelligence ex¬ 
amines and explains. 

—Some Mistakes of Moses. 


November 18. 



HE simple truth is what we ask, 
Not the ideal; 

We set ourselves the noble task 
To find the real. 

If all there is is nought but dross 
We want to know and bear our loss. 


—Declaration of the Free. 


November 19. 



HEN you go home you ought to go like a ray 
of light—so that it will, even in the night, 
burst out of the doors and windows and illumi¬ 
nate the darkness. 

—Liberty of Man, Woman and Child. 


- November 29. --* 

BSTEUCTION is but virtue’s foil. From 
thwarted light leaps color’s flame. The stream 
impeded has a song. 

—Tribute to H. W. Beecher. 

WHEN women reason and babes sit in the lap of phi¬ 
losophy, the victory of reason over the shadowy host of 
darkness will be complete. —Individuality. 









































November 17: 


November 18. 


November 19. 


November 20. 










November 21. 


N Sunday, the twenty-first of November, 1694, 
a babe was born—Voltaire ! a name that excites 
the admiration of men, the malignity of priests. 
Voltaire was the greatest man of his century, 
and did more to free the human race than any other of 
the sons of men. 



November 22. 



ATURE does not hurry. Time cannot be wasted 
—cannot be lost. The future remains eternal 
and all the past is as though it were to be. The 
infinite knows neither loss nor gain. 


—A Thanksgiving Sermon. 


November 23.< 


ENTAL liberty means the right of all to read 
this book [the volume of nature]. Here the 
Pope and Peasant are equal. Each must read 
for himself—and each ought to honestly and 
fearlesly gives to his fellowmen what he learns. 

—The Truth. 



IGNORANCE is the mother of mystery and misery, of 
superstition and sorrow, of waste and want. —The Truth. 

•- November 21f. - 



THANK the brave men with brave thoughts. 
They are the Atlases upon whose broad and 
mighty shoulders rests the grand fabric of civ¬ 
ilization. They are the men who have broken, 
and are still breaking, the chains of superstition. They 
are the Titans who carried Olympus by assault, and who 
will soon stand victors upon Sinai’s crags. 


—The Ghosts. 










































November 21. 


November 22. 


November 23. 


November 21f. 










November 25. 


THINK it is better to love your children than 
to love God, a thousand times better because 
you can help them, and I am inclined to think 
that God can get along without you. Certainly 
we cannot help a being without body, parts or passions ! 

—Orthodoxy. 



November 26 .■ 



HAT which is founded upon slavery, and fear, 
and ignorance, cannot endure. In the religion 
of the future there will be men and women and 
children, all the aspirations of the soul, and all 


the tender humanities of the heart. 


-The Ghosts. 


November 27. 



E do not pray, or weep, or wail; 

"We have no dread. 

No fear to pass beyond the veil 
That hides the dead. 

And yet we question, dream, and guess; 
But knowledge we do not possess. 


■—Declaration of the Free. 


November 28. 



VERY man should be mentally honest. He 
should preserve as his most precious jewel the 
perfect veracity of his soul. 

—The Truth. 


EVERY man should be the intellectual proprietor of 
himself, and intellectually hospitable; and upon every 
brain reason should be enthroned as king. 


—Interviews. 







































'November 25. 


November 26. 


November 27. 


November 2S. 










November 20. 



YERY man should have the courage to give his 
honest thought. This makes the finder and 
publisher of truth a public benefactor. 

—The Truth. 


November 30. 



tyranny, 


OR the vagaries of the clouds the Infidels pro¬ 
pose to substitute the realities of the earth; for 
superstition, the splendid demonstrations and 
achievements of science; and for- theological 
the chainless liberty of thought. 


—The Gods. 
























November 2D. 


November SO. 
















v*> rtintiK ":'t Vi-; » *>>o 

mMHMMMbm 

wm sts arnim 


5 tmiWmm 


'HERE had been a snow, and after the snows a sleet, and 
all the trees were bent, and all the boughs were arched. 
Every fence, every log cabin had been transfigured, 
touched with a glory almost beyond this world. The 
great fields were a pure and perfect white, the forests, drooping 
beneath their load of gems, made wonderful caves, from which 
one almost expected to see troops of fairies come. The whole 
world looked like a bride, jeweled from head to foot. 


feeremitr 




















































































December l.> 



AN must learn to rely on himself. Beading 
bibles will not protect him from the blasts of 
winter, but houses, fires, and clothing will. 
To prevent famine, one plow is worth a million 
sermons, and even patent medicines will cure more 
diseases than all the prayers uttered since the beginning 
of the world. 

—The Gods. 


December 2. 



YEBY child should be taught to doubt, to in¬ 
quire—to demand reasons. Every soul should 
defend itself—should be on its guard against 
falsehood, deceit, and mistake, and should be¬ 
ware of all kinds of confidence men, including those in 
the pulpit.. 

—The Truth. 


December 3.> 



EN should be liberated from the aristocracy of 
the air. Every chain of superstition should 
be broken. The rights of men and women 
should be equal and sacred—marriage should 
be a perfect partnership—children should be governed 
by kindness—every family should be a republic—every 
fireside a democracy. 

—The Ghosts. 


December Jf. 



BOYTH is heresy. Orthodox ideas are the 
feathers that have been moulted by the eagle 
of progress. They are the dead leaves under 
the majestic palm, while heresy is the bud and 
blossom at the top. Every heretic has been, and is, a 
ray of light. Not in vain were the splendid utterances 
of the Infidels, while beyond all price are the discoveries 
of Science. — Heretics and Heresies. 







































December 1. 


December 2. 


December 3. 


December 4 - 










December 5. 


HE complex, tangled web of thought and dream, 
of perception and memory, of imagination and 
judgment, of wish and will and want—the woven 
wonder of a life—has never yet been raveled 
back to simple threads. 

—Preface to Brain and Bible. 

- December 6. . 

HALL we not become charitable and just, when 
we know that every act is but condition’s fruit; 
that Nature, with her countless hands, scatters 
the seeds of tears and crimes—of ever virtue 
and of every joy; that all the base and vile are victims 
of the Blind, and that the good and great have, in the 
lottery of life, by chance or fate, drawn heart and brain ? 

—Preface to Brain and Bible. 

- December 7. - 

PROPHECY that depends for its fulfilment 
upon an impossibility, cannot satisfy the brain 
or heart. There are but few who do not long 
for a dawn beyond the night. And this longing 
is born of and nourished by the heart. Love wrapped 
in shadow, bending with tear-filled eyes above its dead, 
convulsively clasps the outstretched hand of hope. 

—Preface to Men, Women and Gods. 

-— December <8.- 

BELIEVE in the medicine of mirth, and in 
what I might call the longevity of laughter. 
In a world like this, where there is so much 
trouble—a world gotten up on such a poor 
plan—where sometimes one is almost inclined to think 
that the Deity, if there be one, played a practical joke 
—to find, I say, in such a world, something that for the 
moment allows laughter to triumph over sorrow, is a 
great piece of good fortune. —Robson and Crane Dinner. 











































December 5 


December 6. 


December 7. 


December 8. 










December 9. 



HERE never was a maD of true genius who had 
not the simplicity of a child, and over whose 
lips had not rippled the river of laughter— 
never, and there never will be. 


—After Dinner Speeches. 


December 10. 



HILE Reason is the pilot of the soul, Humor 
carries the lamp. Whoever has the sense of 
humor fully developed, cannot, by any possi¬ 
bility, be an orthodox theologian. He would 
be his own laughing-stock. The most absurd stories, 
the most laughable miracles, read in a solemn, stately 
way, sound to the ears of ignorance and awe like truth. 

—Interviews. 


December ll.> 



HE teacher, the mother, should be absolutely 
honest. The nursery should not be an asylum 
for lies. Parents should be modest enough to 
be truthful—honest enough to admit their ig- 
Nothing should be taught as true that cannot 


norance. 
be demonstrated. 


—The Truth. 


■ ■■■■'*December 12. - 

ND yet, after all, what would this world be 

without death ? It mav be from the fact that 

«/ 

we are all victims, from the fact that we are 
all bound by a common fate; it may be that 
friendship and love are born of that fact; but whatever 
the fact is, I am perfectly satisfied that the highest pos¬ 
sible philosophy is to enjoy to-day, not regretting yes¬ 
terday, and not fearing to-morrow. 








































December 9. 


December 10, 


December 11. 


December 12. 










- December 13. . ..— 

O be self-respecting we must be self-supporting. 
Nobility is a question of character, not of 
birth. Honor cannot be received as alms—it 
must be earned. It is the brow that makes 
the wreath of glory green. 

—After Dinner Speeches. 



December lh. 



UT where harmony is preserved by the proper 
exercise, even old age is beautiful. To the 
well developed, to the strong, life seem£ rich, 
obstacles small, and success easy. They laugh 
at cold and storm. Whatever the season may be their 
hearts are filled with summer. 

—After Dinner Speeches. 


December 15. 



HESE myths filled the veins of Spring with 
tremulous desire, made tawny Summer’s bil¬ 
lowy breast- the throne and home of love, filled 
Autumn’s arms with sunkissed grapes and gath¬ 
ered sheaves, and pictured winter as a weak old king, 
who felt like Lear, upon his withered face, Cordelia’s 
tears. 

—Myth and Miracle. 

■■ .. 1 ■ December 16. - 


IBERTY is the birthright of all. Parents 
should not deprive their children of the great 
gifts of nature. We cannot all leave lands and 
gold to those we love; but we can leave Lib¬ 
erty, and that is of more value than all the wealth of 
India. 



—Fragments. 







































December 13. 


December Ilf. 


December 15. 


December 16. 










December 17. 


HE man wlio thinks on his feet, who has the 
pose of passion, the face that thought illumi¬ 
nates, a voice in harmony with the idea ex¬ 
pressed, who dresses the ideas of the people 
in purple and fine linen, who has the art of finding the 
best and noblest in his hearers—that man is an orator, 
no matter of what time or what country. 

—Orators and Oratory. 

-- December 18. . - 

HE real truth is that men change their opinions 
as long as they grow, and only those remain of 
the same opinion still who have reached the in¬ 
tellectual autumn of their lives ; who have gone 
to seed, and who are simply waiting for the winter of death. 
How and then there is a brain in which there is the cli¬ 
mate of perpetual spring—men who never grow old—and 
when such a one is found we say, “ Here is a genius.” 

- December 19 

HE man who builds a home erects a temple. 
The flame upon the hearth is the sacred fire. 
He who loves wife and children is the true 
worshiper. Forms and ceremonies, kneelings 
and fastings, are born of selfish fear. A good deed is the 
best prayer. A loving life is the best religion. No one 
knows whether the Unknown is worthy of worship or 
ttot* —Fragments. 

* December 20. - 

AGNETISM is what you might call the climate 
of a man. Some men, and some women, look 
like a perfect June day. . . . There are people 
who are autumnal—that is to say, generous. 
They have had their harvest, and have plenty to spare. 
Others look like the end of an exceedingly hard winter 
—between the hay and the grass the hay mostly gone 
and the grass not yet come up. _ Interviews 











































December 17. 


December IS. 


December 19. 


December 20. 










•December 21.‘ 



JUDGE should either sit beyond the reach of 
prejudice, in some calm that storms cannot 
invade, or he should be a kind of oak so that 
before any blast he would stand erect. 

—Interviews. 


December 


o? 

iv • 



HARACTER cannot be made by another for 
you. A r ou must be the architect of your own.” 
There is to me unspeakably more comfort in 
the idea that every failure ends here, than that 


it is to be perpetuated forever. 


—Replies to Clergy. 


December 2d.- 



AKE from loving hearts the awful fear. Have 
mercy on your fellow-men. Do not drive to 
madness the mothers whose tears are falling on 
the pallid faces of those who died in unbelief. 
Pity the erring, wayward, suffering, weeping world. Do 
not proclaim as “ tidings of great joy ” that an Infinite 
Spider is weaving webs to catch the souls of men. 

—Replies to Clergy. 

■■■■■■ ■■■ ■ December 2If. 



results, 
firmament. 


E know that acts are good or bad only as they 
affect the actors and others. We know that 
from every good act good consequences flow, 
and that from every bad act there are only evil 
Every virtuous deed is a star in the moral 


—The Christian Religion. 







































December 21: 


December 22. 


December 23. 


December 21{. 










- December 25. - 

HE good part of Christmas is not always Chris¬ 
tian—it is generally Pagan; that is to say, 
human, natural. . . . Christmas is a good day 
to forgive and forget, a good day to throw 
away prejudices and hatreds, a good day to fill your 
heart and your house, and the hearts and houses of 
others, with sunshine. 

—Christmas Sermon. 

■December 26. - 

E love our fellow man, our kind, 

Wife, child and friend. 

To phantoms we are deaf and blind; 

But we extend 

The helping hand to the distressed * 

By lifting others we are blessed. 

—Declaration of the Free. 

- December 21.- . . * 

N the search for truth—that everything in na¬ 
ture seems to hide—man needs the assistance 
of all his faculties. All the senses should be 
awake. Humor should carry a torch, Wit should 
give its sudden light, Candor should hold the scales, 
Reason, the final arbiter, should put his royal stamp 
on every fact, and Memory, with a miser’s care, should 
keep and guard the mental gold. —Gladstone Discussion. 

- December 28. - 

O you not see that if men have done good and 
bad, the future can have neither a perfect 
heaven nor a perfect hell ? I believe in the 
manly doctrine that every human being must 
bear the consequences of his acts, and that no man can 
be justly saved or damned on account of the goodness 
or the wickedness of another. 






—Field Discussion. 








































December 25. 


December 26. 


December 27. 


December 28. 










- Decern her 29. . 

ANY people suppose that poetry is a kind of 
art, depending upon certain rules, and that it 
is only necessary to find out these rules to be 
a poet. But these rules have never been found. 
The great poet follows them unconsciously. The great 
poet seems as unconscious as Nature, and the product 
of the highest art seems to have been felt instead of 
thought. — Robert Burns. 

-- December SO. ^ 

HAVE said that the golden bridge of life from 
gloom emerges, and on shadow rests. . . . Life 
is a shadowy, strange, and winding road on 
which we travel for a few short steps, just a 
little way from the cradle, with its lullaby of love, to 
the low and quiet wayside inn, where all at last must 
sleep, and where the only salutation is “ Good-night.” 

- December 31. - 

NOTHER year has joined his shadowy fellows 
in the wide and voiceless desert of the past, 
where, from the eternal hour-glass, forever fall 
the sands of time. Another year, with all its 
joy and grief, of birth and death, of failure and success 
—of love and hate. And now, the first day of the new 
overarches all. Standing between the buried and the 
babe, we cry, “ Farewell and Hail! ” 

—The Old and New Year. 






















































r 


December 29. 


December 30. 


December 31: 














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